Caroline's parents helped track down suspect

Last updated at 10:05 10 June 2004


Jurors in the Caroline Dickinson murder trial today heard how the persistence of the schoolgirl's parents helped to track down her suspected killer.

The court was told how John and Sue Dickinson urged French investigators to initiate the extensive programme of DNA testing which eventually led to the arrest of Spanish waiter Francisco Arce Montes in April 2001.

Speaking at Montes's trial in Rennes, the Dickinson's lawyer, Herve Rouzaud-Lebouef, said the French were lagging behind the UK as far as DNA testing was concerned.

Genetic tracing

He said: "The Dickinson family insisted with the examining magistrate in St-Malo that genetics should be used in this case.

"Sue and John Dickinson mentioned the importance of genetic testing because it already existed in the British system at the time. They had a national DNA database.

"I'd like to thank John and Sue who, through their determination, have played a significant role in bringing this trial about because the French legislators realised there was a need to have a national database."

Judge Fabienne Doroy said the English had had a database since 1995 and that the French had not used such techniques until later.

Montes is accused of raping and killing Caroline in a youth hostel in Pleine Fougeres in July 1996.

He was eventually arrested and extradited to France in April 2001 after a break-in with sexual overtones at a youth hostel in Miami Beach, Florida, US.

DNA match

His DNA was found to match that found in semen from the scene of Caroline's murder.

Today's evidence emerged as DNA expert Marie-Helene Cherpin took the stand on the trial's fourth day.

She told the court how 3,700 DNA tests were carried out, mainly on men in the village where Caroline was killed.

Another expert, Olivier Pascal, said the chances of two DNA samples being the same were "one in a billion".

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