A photofit of a man suspected of murdering British schoolgirl Caroline Dickinson is about to be circulated in France.

Thousands of copies will be on display in police stations and gendarmeries, as well as petrol stations and post offices.

Police say the campaign will get underway before the end of February.

The victim's father, John Dickinson, has been shown the photofit but said he could not give details of the suspected killer.

Caroline's parents more hopeful her killer will be found

He would only say: "He is not somebody particularly young."

The latest move in the bid to catch the killer comes 19 months after 13-year-old Caroline was raped and murdered in a hostel in the Brittany village of Pleine Fougeres.

She died in a tiny shared dormitory while on a trip with schoolfriends from Launceston community college, east Cornwall, in July 1996.

The photofit was prepared with the help of some of those who were on the trip.

A French source said the photofit was believed to be an "excellent likeness" of the suspect.

French detectives visited Cornwall for three days last week to talk to some of the teenager's schoolfriends about what they saw and heard in the hostel.

The students are thought to have given a description of a man seen in the area before the killing, which resembled a photofit they were shown by the French team.

The hostel where Caroline died

John Dickinson said he and Caroline's mother, his former wife Sue, had talked with the French detectives during their visit.

"We hope this photofit is recognised, and we definitely feel people are going to be able to help with it," he said.

Mr Dickinson said he was pleased with the involvement he and Caroline's mother had been allowed in the case since it was transferred to Judge Reynaud van Ruymbeke from examining magistrate Gerard Zaug last year.

The Dickinsons had criticised the handling of the murder investigation by Mr Zaug.

In November last year Judge van Ruymbeke visited Devon and Cornwall police force for a high-level conference on the murder hunt.

A criminal psychologist, and four senior detectives from the investigation spent a number of days at the crime scene drawing up a psychological profile of the killer.
 

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