The mother of a Cornish girl murdered on a school trip to France more than three years ago has lost her civil claim for damages against the county education authority.

Sue Dickinson, 41, brought the action for negligence and breach of duty against Cornwall County Council after the death of her 13-year-old daughter Caroline in July 1996, while on a trip with Launceston Community College.

But Mr Justice Steel in the High Court in Exeter said that "for all the heartbreaking features of this case" she had not proved that the school staff supervising the trip were at fault.

If Mrs Dickinson had won her case it could have had implications for education authorities and schools nationwide in relation to organised trips.

Caroline was raped and asphyxiated while on an activities week trip with 40 other pupils and four teachers in the Brittany village of Pleine Fougeres.

She was found dead on the mattress on which she slept in a first-floor youth hostel bedroom.

The unknown intruder who murdered her is still being hunted by French police.

'Duty of care'

During the two days of evidence at Plymouth, counsel for Mrs Dickinson, Stephen Killalea, claimed there was negligence in failing to ensure that the external doors of the hostel were locked.

The teachers owed a duty of care to Caroline similar to that of a reasonably careful parent, he said.

Mrs Dickinson spoke publicly for the first time about her daughter's death at the hearing, and said she was "horrified" to discover the hostel was not secure.

"I entrusted the care of my daughter to the school and I feel they owed Caroline a duty of care," she said.

She felt they failed to carry out appropriate checks to ensure the suitability of the accommodation for a group of children.

'Dreadful anguish'

But the judge said that Caroline's murder was in no way a foreseeable consequence of leaving the doors unlocked.

The trip organiser, teacher Elizabeth Barker, said in court that the thought of intruders "did not enter my mind", as there had been successful trips to the hostel on the two previous years.

Finding for the county council, the judge said he recognised Mrs Dickinson's "dreadful anguish" but said that did not allow him to find the defendants liable.

Mrs Dickinson, from Launceston, was in court with her former husband and Caroline's father, John, 43, from Bodmin.

She wept outside court after the judgment was delivered.

No appeal

Her solicitor, Ian Langsford, said she was disappointed by the verdict but would not be making an appeal.

"This was never a case about winning or losing and such considerations do not apply in these tragic circumstances," he said.

Cornwall County Council's director of education, Jonathan Harris, said: "I understand the distress that Mr and Mrs Dickinson have experienced since Caroline's death.

"The judgment in this case was about the duty of reasonable care which head teachers, governors and local authority staff must undertake when organising school journeys.

"We believe that in this case all our staff acted sensibly and responsibly and could not be held responsible for the tragic events which occurred. We are pleased that the judge reached a similar conclusion."