French collect DNA samples from girl's accused killer

Results of DNA tests, which could help solve the murder of Caroline Dickinson, are unlikely to be revealed for at least two days, French prosecutors said.

Investigators flew to the United States to collect DNA samples taken from the accused, Francisco Montez.

He was arrested in Florida last month, but his possible link to the crime was only realised by an immigration officer who had read about the girl's murder while on holiday in Britain.

The assistant public prosecutor in Rennes said the samples would be analysed in a French laboratory in the next 48 to 72 hours.

Yves Boiven said: "We have to be patient and not get too excited, though this is obviously a very important development."

It emerged that Montez is refusing to co-operate with prosecutors in Miami.

Caroline, 13, from Bodmin, in Cornwall, was raped and suffocated as she slept with friends in a hostel in Pleine-Fougeres in Brittany while on a school trip to France in July 1996.

Montez, 51, was named by police in France in connection with the murder.

The restaurant worker is wanted in connection with a series of assaults on teenage girls in hostels in the Loire Valley, 200 miles from where Caroline was killed.