Murdered girl's father demands action

Caroline Dickinson would have been 18 on Sunday

The father of a schoolgirl murdered in France more than four years ago is meeting the man in charge of the hunt for her killer.

Caroline Dickinson, 13, was raped and killed in a hostel dormitory in the village of Pleine Fougeres, in Brittany, in 1996, while on a school trip from Launceston Community College, Cornwall.

John Dickinson: Public hold the key

This is Mr Dickinson's 18th trip to France. In the four years since his daughter's death there have been numerous leads but each one has come to nothing.

The team of detectives investigating the case has been reduced from 18 to three, but Mr Dickinson 43, from Bodmin, in Cornwall, refuses to give up hope.

"It does seem incredible all this time has gone by and the man has not been caught," he said.

"It is our concern that Caroline will become a statistic - an unsolved murder. We refuse to accept that possibility."

Mr Dickinson is in Rennes discussing the investigation with Judge Francois Dubons, who is leading the hunt. He is expected to make another appeal to the French public later.

The investigators are still pinning their hopes on tracing the "caveman" character whose likeness was captured on a photofit issued two years ago.

Suspected killer: The police photofit

A man fitting that description asked the way to Pleine Fougeres from a neighbouring village two days before Caroline's murder.

Genetic tests have been carried out on 2,000 men in France and Britain in an unsuccessful search for samples matching those found on the schoolgirl's body.

"I still feel members of the public hold the key," said Mr Dickinson. But he accepts that several avenues of investigation have been closed.