An Australian coroner yesterday ruled that no additional charges should be brought over an arson attack at an outback hostel which killed 15 tourists, including one from Ireland.
Six Britons, four Australians, two Dutch, one Irish, one Japanese and one South Korean died when a fire tore through the overcrowded Palace backpackers' hostel in Childers, Queensland, on June 23rd, 2000.
Itinerant fruit picker Robert Paul Long was found guilty of starting the blaze. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in March 2002 and will have to serve a minimum of 20 years.
Queensland state coroner Michael Barnes reopened an inquiry this week into whether the hostel's managers should be charged for allegedly failing to provide adequate emergency escape routes from the hostel.
The inquest was reopened after 11 of the victims' families filed civil proceedings against the Queensland state government, local authorities and the hostel's operators.
Mr Barnes found that the hostel's operators, John Dobe and Christian Atkinson, were not so negligent that they should face manslaughter charges over the tragedy.
The inquiry heard that no fire safety inspections had been conducted in the 100-year-old hostel, a faulty fire alarm had been turned off, windows were barred, nailed or painted shut, and exits were blocked, impeding escape from the blaze.
A total of 87 people were in the hostel at the time of the late-night blaze, despite a local law limiting occupancy to 53 people.
Mr Dobe and Mr Atkinson refused to give evidence at the inquest on the basis that their answers could incriminate them. A state coroner does not have the same powers as a judge to compel witnesses to testify.
Their lawyer, Tony Rafter, told the coroner that his clients had provided numerous written statements and had recorded interviews with the police.
Childers is an agricultural community of about 2,500 people, 185 miles north of the state capital, Brisbane. Each year, thousands of tourists work on fruit and sugar plantations to finance their Australian holidays. - (AP)