[7] In December 1975 the Savoy Private Hotel burned down with the loss of 15 lives and 25 seriously injured after a fire set by Reginald John Little.
It was next door to a building that housed the Pink Panther strip club and a brothel called the Kingsdore Motel.
[11] The victims were David Leo Hillman, 25, Canadian; Jacinda Maree Hill, 25, New Zealand; Allan Nielsen, 27, Danish; Darren Andrews, 20, British; and an Austrian and a Swedish national.
"[11] Gregory Allan Brown, who had a history of mental illness and drug and alcohol abuse, confessed to setting this fire and some 500 more.
Alleged to have boasted to another prisoner "I love hearing people scream and watching them die," he was released in 2009 after serving his full sentence, refusing to apply for parole.
[19] In 2022 Gregory Allan Brown appeared in the Supreme Court of Tasmania, accused of asking a 16-year-old girl to send him photos of her vagina, via Messenger.
A trio of experts questioned Brown's defense, arguing he fabricated a neglected childhood and other hardships which led to his lighting the Downunder Hostel in anger.
[22] On 17 September 2024, 35 years to the day of the Downunder arson fire, Brown plead guilty to perverting justice.