A Sussex backpacker and five fellow Britons were unlawfully killed in a blaze, a coroner has ruled.

Adam Rowland, 19, of St Leonards, was among 15 travellers who died when fruit picker Robert Long committed arson at the Palace Backpackers Hostel, in Childers, Queensland, in June 2000.

Assistant coroner for Avon Brian Whitehouse told parents of the victims at Flax Bourton, Bristol, their children's deaths were a "tragedy".

The British detective who compiled a report of the Australian investigations told the inquest the owners of the hostel had switched off fire alarms and blocked fire exits to a bedroom where ten people died.

Inferno Detective Inspector Phillip Kennell, of Avon and Somerset police, said: "The owner stated they had fire alarms but they were malfunctioning and had been disabled weeks before the fire had struck."

Briton Melissa Smith, 26, from Berkshire, was also killed in the inferno but her inquest, which recorded an open verdict, was held in 2000.

An Australian inquest held last year was told escape routes were blocked, windows barred and the main fire alarm out of order at the time of the fire.

Despite the hostel's poor safety record, the Australian coroner ruled the site's managers, John Dobe and Christian Atkinson, were not so negligent that they should face manslaughter charges.

The pair both avoided questioning after successfully claiming privilege on the grounds that any evidence they gave might incriminate them.

Keen footballer Adam, of Sedlescombe Road North, was a former pupil at Grove School in Darwell Close, St Leonards, where he excelled in sport.

Following his GCSEs, Adam left to work in the despatch department for vacuum manufacturers ITL on the Ponswood Industrial Estate in Menzies Road, St Leonards.

Money he earned helped fund his year-long tour of Australia, which he went on with a couple of friends to broaden his horizons before deciding what to do with his life.

He was only two months into his trip when he was caught up in the early-morning inferno on June 23, 2000, at the hostel 190 miles north of Brisbane.

Confusion reigned for several days as to whether Adam was among the dead before identification was finally made through dental records.

A memorial service commemorating those who perished in the fire was held exactly two years after the tragedy.

Another backpacker originally from St Leonards, Martin Cockhill, escaped the blaze with his girlfriend Lisa Duffy.

After Long was jailed, Adam's family said no length of imprisonment would ever atone for his death.