Radio operator sacked over Caroline murder

An Australian police radio operator accused of ignoring a report of a woman’s scream the night British backpacker Caroline Stuttle was killed has been sacked, an official said today.

Police minister Tony McGrady said the man was dismissed last Monday following an internal investigation by the Police Ethical Standards Command.

“He has the opportunity to appeal against the decision but he has been dismissed and his services are no longer required by the Queensland Police Service,” McGrady said.

The investigation followed reports that an unidentified woman had phoned police only a few minutes after Miss Stuttle, 19, from York, disappeared in the Queensland state town of Bundaberg on April 10 last year.

The radio operator who took the call allegedly did not pass on the information to police.

The caller also reportedly said she had seen the shadowy figure of a man looking over the railing of a bridge in Bundaberg around the time Miss Stuttle was believed to have fallen or been pushed to her death from the bridge.

No one has been arrested in connection with her death.