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 mass murderer who burned 15 backpackers alive has gained weight in jail binge drinking cans of soft drink after becoming a kingpin in the prison’s black market food supply.
Homeless fruit picker Robert Paul Long was jailed for life 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 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.
As parole approaches for the 57-year-old, a former inmate at the Wolston Correctional Centre in Queensland described Long as an ‘absolute grub’.
He said the murderer, who is short in stature, sports a ‘vulgar pot belly’ and weighs about 90kgs because he drinks copious amounts of Coke – a perk of controlling the food supply in his ‘cushy’ residential unit, according to The Courier-Mail.
The drifter 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
The gutted interior of the Childers hostel (pictured). Long is eligible for parole almost two decades after he torched the 100-year-old building
The former prisoner described the supermarket setup in the block where convicted criminals could order from a restricted range of cereals, sultanas, powdered milk, sugar.
Long, who gained a position as a carer for geriatric prisoners, built a mini empire with other carers taking food from inmates to build a surplus for trading.
He said Long would ‘watch you like a hawk’ after a food order, before confiscating it.
‘If I wanted a second serve of cereal or whatever that I had ordered [the carers] would come down on you like a tonne of bricks and say: ‘No you’re eating too much food’.’
The carers would then take the food and carry it off to their cells.
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
Firemen inspect the Palace Backpackers Hostel after a fire killed 15 backpackers in 2000
‘I figured one of the kickbacks was that if he got food and fed it out, bacon or whatever else, he would get rewarded with tokens. And tokens buy you things like Coke. I only ever saw him drink Coke.’
Long has now served his minimum term and could be back on the streets in just weeks if an application for parole is granted.
Described by the former prisoner as a ‘loner’, Long is reportedly seen as a ‘model prisoner’ by staff.
As a geriatric carer, Long was charged with tasks such as taking older inmates to medical appointments, clothing and feeding them, along with other responsibilities such as taking rubbish out and cleaning tables.
But the ex prisoner claimed he never saw Long – whose residential unit in the jail was described as more like a ‘retirement home’ – complete these tasks.
The ex prisoner warned that Long would not be an asset to the community if he is released because he is a ‘snaky, snaky little b***ard’.
A painting of the 15 young backpackers who died in the fire which was unveiled in the restored Childers Palace Memorial (pictured)
The fire Long started killed seven backpackers from Britain, two from the Netherlands, three Australians 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.
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
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.’
Ms Lewicki, Ms Smith and other survivors made submissions to the parole board, who will decide if Long will walk free.
Long had fled the scene of the fire but five days later was tracked down by police – who he lunged at with a knife.
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
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.
The attorney-general called for Long to spend a minimum of 25 years in jail but the appeal was refused.