French detectives to quiz schoolgirls for leads

Detectives in France investigating the rape and murder of Caroline Dickinson are to interview another British schoolgirl attacked on the same night, it was reported today.

They believe that she was also the victim of Francisco Montez, the prime suspect in Caroline’s murder.

The schoolgirl, from Greater Manchester, was assaulted at a youth hostel in La Lunaire, Brittany in July 1996.

Three hours later Caroline was raped and suffocated 25 miles away in her hostel room in Pleine-Fougeres.

Caroline, 13, from Bodmin, Cornwall, was on a school trip with Launceston Community College.

French police are also expected to interview two other British schoolgirls who were victims of similar attacks in youth hostels in Brittany in 1996.

Spanish-born waiter Montez, 51, is awaiting trial in Florida on charges of breaking into a woman’s house in Miami beach and committing a lewd act.

He was arrested last month and his suspected link to the Caroline killing was made when a US immigration official read about the schoolgirl’s murder while on holiday in Britain and began investigations.

The French authorities have issued an international warrant for his arrest after his DNA sample was found to bear ‘‘very important similarities’’ to traces taken at the murder scene.