Whiskey Au Go Go inquest: Owner denies fire was insurance job

One of two brothers who owned Brisbane’s Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub has been sensationally accused at an inquest of starting the infamous fire that killed 15 people, to collect insurance money.

The part-owner of Brisbane’s Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub has denied that he arranged for the 1973 fire that claimed 15 lives so he could collect an insurance payout.

“You and or your brother arranged the fire at Whiskey Au Go Go, didn’t you?” barrister Chris Minnery put to Kenneth Little, at the reopened inquest into the fatal fire.

“Not correct,” replied Mr Little, who owned the Whiskey Au Go nightclub with his brother Brian Little.

“You arranged the fire in order to collect insurance, didn’t you?” Mr Minnery said.

“Not correct,” Mr Little again replied.

Mr Little also denied in court colluding with John Andrew Stuart to “make the fire happen” or arranging for the fire through then venue manager John Bell.

James Finch and John Stuart were arrested and charged days after the March 8, 1973 fire and later that year they were convicted of arson and murder.

No one else was ever arrested but the current inquest is examining whether more people were involved

Mr Little said he did not receive any insurance money after the fire.

“You were back in business pretty quick for somebody who didn’t get any insurance, weren’t you?,” Mr Minnery, who is representing Vincent O’Dempsey, put to Mr Little.

“I did not do what you’re saying,” Mr Little replied.

Whiskey Au Go Go part-owner Kenneth Little leaves the inquest. Picture: Dan Peled/NCA NewsWire

Mr Little told Stephen Keim, counsel assisting the coroner, that he did not know of any discussions or any plan before the fire to burn Whiskey Au Go Go and claim insurance.

When asked if he knew beforehand of an attack on the nightclub Mr Little said he did not, apart from John Stuart making threats, but said he did not take them seriously as he thought Stuart was “an idiot”.

Mr Little did not tell police on the night of the fatal fire about the earlier threats by Stuart that the club would be “bombed”, the inquest heard.

Mr Little told the inquest that Stewart had earlier told him bullet holes found in the nightclub windows were done as a warning.

Mr Keim put to Mr Little that it was untrue when he told police he did not know John Stewart personally, as Stuart had visited the nightclub and made threats.

He said he did not mention the threats by Stuart, until days later, because he was under stress on the night of the fire.

Mr Little agreed with Mr Keim that Stuart had been a regular at the nightclub and he had been involved in an incident with Stuart, involving a knife.

He also agreed that Stuart had threatened to shoot him and his brother and had threatened that the nightclub would be bombed.

Witness Raymond Ide leaves the court after giving evidence. Picture: Brad Fleet

Another witness Raymond Ide told the inquest of being told in 2009, by a former Whiskey employee, of a conversation that that man had with Kenneth Little on the night of the fire.

Mr Ide said the other man told him, in a conversation he recorded, that Ken Little was yelling out: “I told them this would happen. I told them this would happen”

Mr Keim put it to Mr Little that he said those words to the employee on that night.

“I do not recall that conversation,” Mr Little said.

Mr Ide told the court of being told by Brian Little and John Bell in 1977 that the nightclub had been in desperate financial trouble before the fire.

He said he was told by others the reason for the Whiskey “suffering the fate that it did” was because a former Whiskey manager named Hannay had virtually sent the club into recession, to the point where they had no money.

Mr Ide said there were indications that Mr Hannay had “robbed the club blind” and they were in desperate trouble.

He said Brian Little and John Bell did not tell him the fire was an insurance job, but he and others believed it was.

Mr Ide said he was not told who started the fire.

The inquest is continuing.