Kings Cross arsonist Gregory Allan Brown enters plea to perverting justice charge

The man behind the deadly 1980s Kings Cross hostel fire has entered a plea to one charge of perverting justice. What the court heard.

Gregory Alan Brown, arsonist, charged over the 1989 Downunder Backpacker Hostel fire in Kings Cross. He faced six counts of murder.

Serial arsonist and man behind the infamous 1989 Sydney’s Kings Cross hostel fire has entered a plea of guilty on Tuesday to one charge of perverting justice for a Supreme Court sentence.

Gregory Allan Brown, 62, appeared in the Hobart Magistrates Court to plea to the charge relating to a 2022 conviction of attempting to involve a person under 18 years in the production of child exploitation material.

Gregory Allan Brown pleaded guilty to one count of perverting justice. Picture: Facebook.

Brown was found guilty in December 2022 after asking a 16-year-old girl, who had stated she was 13, to send him “three pictures of her vagina” over Facebook Messenger.

He was given a wholly suspended 12-month prison sentence and served no jail time.

However, an investigation involving a “trio of experts” by The Australian published in 2023 alleged that Brown’s claims made during the 2022 court trial were false and made to “get him a bit of an easy run”.

The experts claimed Brown’s story, that he’d been present when his wife died in a car crash, that one of his children blamed him for the accident, and that he’d witnessed violence while growing up, were untrue.

This prompted Tasmania Police to investigate Brown’s background and police now allege he lied to the Supreme Court over the child exploitation material offence, by providing false information that “unduly influenced the judiciary” and affected his sentence.

This is not Brown’s first run-in with the law.

**This picture has a scanned reverse – see associated content at the bottom of the details window** Gregory Alan Brown, arsonist, charged over the 1989 Downunder Backpacker Hostel fire in Kings Cross. He faced six counts of murder.

Brown confessed in 1990 to the 1989 Downunder Hostel fire in Kings Cross which claimed the lives of six backpackers and was jailed for 19 years.

Defence lawyers for Brown stated there were some “particulars” in the case requiring amending before Brown appears in the Supreme Court.

Mr Marron ordered Brown to appear at the Hobart Supreme Court of Tasmania on November 19.

Originally published as Kings Cross arsonist Gregory Allan Brown enters plea to perverting justice charge