AAP General News (Australia)
08-30-2001
Qld: Childers case heads to High Court
Legal counsel for the man accused of the Childers' backpackers fire have taken their
fight over where his trial will be held to the High Court.
The legal aid-funded defence team for ROBERT PAUL LONG has argued he couldn't get a
fair trial in Bundaberg, where prejudice among the local people would run the risk of
a retrial.
Instead they want the venue changed to Brisbane.
Thirty-eight-year-old LONG is facing two charges of murdering 27-year-old Western Australian
twins KELLY and STACEY CLARKE as well as the arson of the Palace Backpackers Hostel on
June 23 last year.
A total of 15 young people were killed in the blaze in the small rural town of Childers,
300km north of Brisbane.
The special leave application was lodged in the High Court in Brisbane today, appealing
against the Queensland Court of Appeal decision which refused to transfer the trial from
Bundaberg.
The trial had been scheduled to start in Bundaberg on October 15.
AAP RTV smk/sc/jh/rp
KEYWORD: LONG (BRISBANE)
2001 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.
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