Caroline suspect 'cautioned for pestering Irish schoolgirl'

The man suspected of killing Caroline Dickinson was questioned by French police two years earlier following the attempted abduction of an Irish schoolgirl.

Francisco Arce Montez spotted Valerie Jacques in Paris and followed her 130 miles to the Loire Valley hotel where her school party was staying.

Then aged 14 and on a school trip, Ms Jacques woke up in terror on two consecutive nights as Montez pestered her to go with him before police arrested him.

Now aged 21, and living in Ballymorris, Co Limerick, Ms Jacques instantly recognised the face of Montez on television reports as her would-be abductor and is due to be reinterviewed by French police this week.

Her brother, Alan Jacques, said his sister's ordeal began after the 51-year-old Spaniard stared at Valerie as she was picnicking with friends in the French capital and followed her to the town of Blere.

Mr Jacques, a reporter for the Limerick Leader newspaper, said: "Valerie went to bed that night and woke up at around 2.30am to hear this man calling her name. He had gone through her bags and found her notebooks with her name on.

"First he spoke in French but then he asked her in English if she would come out and help him to fix his car. She realised there was something terribly wrong and screamed. There were five other girls asleep in the room and he ran off."

The teachers and the hotel staff were informed and the following night the girls barricaded themselves in with a chest of drawers, as there was no lock on their door.

Mr Jacques said: "The last thing she thought was that he was going to be back but at 2.30am she heard him pushing against the door and calling her name.

"She ran to the far corner of the room and the other girls woke up and within seconds the police were there. She was later asked to identify him. She said she could not recognise his face, because it had been dark, but that she recognised his voice."

Montez was then released with a caution, she said.

Montez has been named by police in France as a suspect in the rape and suffocation of Caroline, from Bodmin, Cornwall, as she slept with friends in a youth hostel in Pleine-Fougeres.