British backpacker's murder suspect due in Australian court

A man accused of murdering a British backpacker who fell to her death from a bridge in eastern Australia, was due in court today for a hearing to establish if prosecutors have enough evidence to put him on trial.

Ian Douglas Previte, aged 31, is charged with murdering Caroline Stuttle, 19, of Huntington, North Yorkshire, UK.

Australian police believe Miss Stuttle, whose body was found on April 10, 2002, was robbed and fell or was pushed to her death from a 30ft-high bridge in the eastern city of Bundaberg.

Miss Stuttle, a gap year student who had arrived in Bundaberg with a friend only a few days earlier to pick tomatoes and earn some travelling money, died of head and spinal injuries.

Previte was charged in February, months after police conducted a mass DNA testing of young and middle-aged men in Bundaberg in their hunt for her killer.

Australian media have reported that Previte was charged when he was an inmate at a Queensland prison but authorities have refused to confirm that.

The committal hearing was scheduled for three days in Bundaberg Magistrates’ Court, 220 miles north of the Queensland state capital of Brisbane.

Bundaberg police prosecutor, Sergeant Warren Murdoch, said that 33 witnesses were set to provide evidence or statements at the committal hearing.

Miss Stuttle’s father Alan and brother Richard, who visited Bundaberg from England in July of last year, were not expected to be at the hearing.

Previte, who has yet to enter a plea, was charged after a 10-month police investigation and faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment if convicted.

Police said Miss Stuttle had walked to the Bundaberg post office to phone her boyfriend and was walking back to a caravan park when she was attacked.