An Australian arsonist serving life in prison for murdering 15 foreign backpackers appeared in court today charged with attempting to murder the policeman who tracked him down.
Robert Paul Long (41) is alleged to have stabbed Mr Glen Damro and his police dog with a knife when he was captured in a forest five days after the June 2000 fire.
Long appeared handcuffed behind a glass cage in Brisbane's Magistrates Court for the start of a two-day preliminary hearing, which will determine whether the prosecution has sufficient evidence against him to warrant a jury trial.
Long is accused of stabbing Mr Damro in the chin during a tussle in the woods when police found him. His tracking dog was also wounded. The struggle ended when Mr Damro's partner fired warning shots.
Long, an itinerant fruit picker, was convicted of murder in March 2002 over the blaze at the Palace Backpackers Hostel at Childers, 186 miles north of the Queensland state capital, Brisbane.
Ms Julie O'Keefe (24), from Limerick, died in the fire, which also killed seven young Britons, three backpackers from Australia, two from The Netherlands and one each from South Korea and Japan.
AP