Lawyers ended two days of legal argument yesterday before the opening statements to the jury in the trial of a drifter accused of starting a fire in an Australian hostel. The fire, in June 2000, killed 15 young backpackers, including Ms Julie O'Keeffe (24) from Limerick.
Mr Long (38) denies two charges of murder and one of arson in the blaze at the Palace Backpackers Hostel in Childers, about 190 miles north of Brisbane. He faces life imprisonment if convicted. Australia does not have the death penalty.
Seven backpackers from Britain, three from Australia, two from the Netherlands and one each from Ireland, Japan and South Korea were killed in the hostel inferno. Sixty-nine people survived.
The judge presiding over the Brisbane trial warned jurors not to treat Mr Long, an itinerant fruit picker, as a scapegoat during the trial, which is expected to last about six weeks.
To shorten the trial, prosecutors have charged Mr Long only with the murders of 27-year-old twins Ms Kelly and Ms Stacey Slarke from Western Australia.
However, prosecutors reserved the right to bring additional charges in the other deaths if they fail to establish in this trial that the twins were murdered. The court will hear from as many as 169 witnesses. - (AP)