Caroline's killer in sentence appeal

Ian Douglas Previte, 32, was convicted on October 15 of the murder and robbery of 19-year-old Caroline Stuttle in the Queensland state city of Bundaberg on April 10, 2002.

The drug-addicted drifter received a mandatory life jail term, meaning he will have to serve 15 years before applying for parole.

Prosecutors said he confessed to cell mates while he was in jail on an unrelated charge and later to police that he pushed Caroline off a bridge. The York student, from Huntington, had been in Bundaberg as part of a gap-year tour of Australia with her best friend, Sarah Holiday. She was due to start a psychology course at Manchester University on her return. On the night Caroline died, she had walked from a caravan park to call her boyfriend in York from a phone box. When she was returning she was attacked and thrown off a 30-foot bridge when Previte tried to snatch her handbag.

Documents lodged in the Queensland Court of Appeal on Previte's behalf, claim five different points of appeal.

One is that the trial judge was wrong to admit a series of evidence including a taped police interview with Previte.

Also contested is the evidence of a handwriting expert who testified it was likely Previte wrote a picnic-table confession, and the evidence of two of the drifter's friends who said he had told them he had done something "silly" the last time he took the drug Serepax.

It is also contended Justice Peter Dutney erred in allowing the jury to have two views of the crime scene (during the day and at night) when they were not reasonably necessary.

The appeal also claims the verdicts were unsafe and unsatisfactory.

An official at the appeals court said the appeal was filed on October 27. No date has been set for a hearing.

Caroline's mother's husband, David Marks, said they were "bitterly disappointed".

"This really keeps the wounds open," he said.

"We just can't seem to get any peace."

Updated: 10:10 Thursday, November 11, 2004