Homeless fruit picker Robert Paul Long started a fire in the Palace Backpackers hostel in Childers, 300km north of Brisbane on June 23, 2000
A murderer who burned 15 backpackers alive at a hostel in rural Queensland could be released in weeks, as survivors beg for the ‘psychopath’ to rot in prison for the rest of his life.
Homeless fruit picker Robert Paul Long received a life sentence with a 20-year non-parole period after starting a fire in the Palace Backpackers hostel in Childers, 300km north of Brisbane on June 23, 2000.
The drifter, now 56, lit the fire in a bin in the lounge of the hostel just after midnight while 88 people were inside, having spoken earlier that evening of his desire to ‘bash’ a backpacker.
He was convicted in 2002 of killing 15 people, but found guilty of murdering only two of the victims – Australian twins Stacey and Kelly Slarke.
Long has now served his minimum term and could be back on the streets in just weeks if an application for parole is granted.
Sisters Lauren Lewicki and Kate Smith, who were among 69 others to survive the inferno, said they will never stop fighting for Long to be kept behind bars.
‘We just 100 per cent believe the punishment doesn’t the crime. It’s shocking that he could be out. It makes us really worried,’ the sisters, who now live near Perth, told the Sydney Morning Herald.
‘How can you justify killing 15 people and attempting to murder 69 people? It just doesn’t fit.’
Long had fled the scene of the fire at the Palace Backpackers hostel in Childers (pictured) but five days later was tracked down by police – who he lunged at with a knife
The drifter, now 56, lit the fire in a bin in the lounge of the hostel (pictured) while 88 people were inside, having spoken earlier that evening of his desire to ‘bash’ a backpacker
Sisters Lauren Lewicki (pictured, left) and Kate Smith (right), who were among 69 others to survive the inferno, said they will never stop fighting for Long to be kept behind bars
Ms Lewicki, Ms Smith and other survivors made submissions to the parole board, who will decide if Long will walk free.
The sisters said Long deserves to never be released and die behind bars.
‘We’ll never stop fighting. What about those parents who will never see their children again? We’d never get over it if we didn’t do everything we could to keep him locked away,’ Ms Lewicki said.
The fire also killed seven backpackers from Britain, two from the Netherlands, another Australian and one each from Ireland, South Korea and Japan.
The regional mayor of Isis Shire – which covered Childers at the time – said he hoped Long could stay behind bars for the rest of his life.
‘It’s not something you expect to happen particularly in a small country town like this but it keeps bringing back the fact that without Robert Long, this would have never have happened,’ former mayor Bill Trevor said.
A fireman is pictured running from the scene of the fire (pictured) in the early hours of June 23, 2000
A painting of the 15 young backpackers who died in the fire which was unveiled in the restored Childers Palace Memorial (pictured)
The gutted interior of the Childers hostel (pictured). Long is eligible for parole almost two decades after he torched the 100-year-old building
‘l’ll truly never understand how someone could do what Robert Long did and particularly wait downstairs to make sure the place was on fire.
‘It’s one of the most despicable acts that I think another can do to a human being.’
Long had fled the scene of the fire but five days later was tracked down by police – who he lunged at with a knife.
An officer shot him in the ear – at which point the murderer mistakenly said: ‘I’m dying anyway, I started the fire.’
His confession was scrawled down on a $10 note by a police officer as he had nothing else to hand.
A prominent lawyer said police only levelled two murder charges against Long in case he was acquitted – at which point he could then be charged with murdering the other victims.
Christine Campbell (pictured), Long’s ex-partner and mother of his daughter, said she was abused and stalked by the ‘psychopath’ for years
The attorney-general called for Long to spend a minimum of 25 years in jail but the appeal was refused.
Christine Campbell, Long’s ex-partner and mother of his daughter, said she was abused and stalked by the ‘psychopath’ for years.
‘It’s like putting a caged lion, and he’s locked up, and when he gets released, he will do it again,’ Ms Campbell told A Current Affair.
Ms Campbell said Long is ‘jealous of everyone and everything,’ and called for him to never be released.
‘He should stay in jail for the rest of his life, that’s what I think should happen, and never, ever get out… to prevent him from doing anything else, because he will,’ she said.
Survivor Richard Tempest was inside the Palace Backpackers during the inferno, and was forced to crawl on his stomach through thick black smoke to escape.
Mr Tempest believes Long should be hit with additional murder and attempted murder charges for the other 13 lives.
’15 young lives in their twenties and thirties, you know travelling and working, just having fun and having their life experiences, and they’re just taken away. How can somebody just do that?’ he said.
‘What about the other 13? You have done 20 years, life, for those two, start the next sentence now for the next 13, and the attempted of 70.’
Survivors of the Palace Backpackers Hostel fire (pictured) join each other on stage and embrace during a memorial service for the 15 victims in Childers two days after the fire