Two British backpackers said today a man charged with two counts of murder on the night of an Australian hostel blaze told them he felt suicidal and they should leave a fire exit door open.
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| Robert Long |
Ms Lisa Duffy (27) and Mr Martin Cockhill (23) both from Kent, told a committal hearing they had shared a bottle of beer with itinerant fruit-picker Mr Robert Long on the balcony of the hostel not long before the fire broke out that killed 15 people, including an Irish student
"At the beginning of the week he said he wanted to blow his head off . . . but by the end of the week he was all right and had sorted himself out, that he was dying of lung cancer and this was the end of it," Ms Duffy told Brisbane Magistrates Court by telephone from Britain.
Mr Long is charged with two counts of murder and one of arson stemming from the fire which tore through the 100-year-old Palace Backpackers' Hostel in Childers, 300 km north of Brisbane, killing the 15 backpackers. Ms Julie O'Keefe (24) of Co Wicklow was among the dead.
The hearing will determine whether he should face trial for the murders of twins Ms Kelly and Ms Stacey Slarke from Western Australia state and for arson.
The twins were among four Australians, six Britons, Ms O Keeffe, two Dutch, one South Korean and one Japanese who died in the fire on June 23rd last year.
Reuters