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'New lead' in Dickinson inquiry
French police have stepped up the hunt for Caroline's killer |
French police are chasing a new lead in the hunt for the man who raped and murdered British schoolgirl Caroline Dickinson in 1996, according to a report.
Caroline, 13, from Launceston, Cornwall, was raped and suffocated in a youth hostel in Pleine Fougeres, Brittany, while on a school trip.
A source from the investigating magistrates' team told a French newspaper they had received an anonymous tip-off about a possible suspect.
Earlier this year French police released a photofit of a man spotted close to the hostel shortly before the murder.
The Ouest-France newspaper says a worker on a building site in Pleine Fougeres has told police of a colleague who matches the police sketch.
'Brawny white man'
The paper says his colleagues had their suspicions about the man at the time, but decided not go to the police.
The suspect is described as a muscular white man in his 30s with a wide nose, thick eyebrows, sideburns, and dark hair.
Ten detectives are still working on the case and they are now trying to pin down exactly which building site was involved and who was working on it.
The inquiry has followed many false leads over the past three years.
DNA tests have been carried out on 2,000 men in France and the UK but so far there has been no match with the killer.
Last month Caroline's mother, Sue, sued her daughter's local education authority for negligence after discovering the doors of the youth hostel where the school party was staying were left unlocked on the night of the murder.
Caroline's father is due in France on Tuesday for talks with Renaud Van Ruymbeke, the man heading the inquiry.
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18 Nov 99 | UK |
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Dickinson school 'not responsible' for security |
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17 Nov 99 | UK |
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Negligence claim over schoolgirl murder |
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16 Sep 99 | UK |
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DNA blow to schoolgirl's murder case |
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07 Sep 99 | UK |
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Concern as judge leaves Caroline case |
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16 Jul 99 | UK |
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New appeal in Dickinson murder |
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