There was a fight - Stuttle accused killer confessed
The man accused of murdering British backpacker Caroline Stuttle admitted to police: “There was a fight and she went over the side,” an Australian court heard today
Ian Douglas Previte, 32, told detectives how Caroline, 19, ended up dead under a bridge in the Queensland town of Bundaberg in April 2002.
The video taped confession, recorded during a police station interview in February 2003, was played to the jury at the start of the second week of the trial in the Bundaberg Supreme Court today.
Previte stared at the floor and almost mumbled as he recounted first seeing Caroline. “ followed her across and I snatched (her bag) – she wouldn’t let it go and she went over.
“We were both pulling on the bag and I swung her around to try and get her to let go – she sorta ran into (the rail) and went over it.”
Previte said he ran down to see “if she was all right” but fled when he saw a man walking under the bridge.
“When I seen her going across the bridge by herself it was just an opportunity,” Previte said.
“I was under the bridge. I wanted to do a snatch. There was a fight and she went over the side.”
The court will hear more of the interview tomorrow.
The jury, prosecution and defence team members and Justice Peter Dutney today walked across Bundaberg’s Burnett Traffic Bridge to the northern end where Caroline fell.
The viewing was the first time the jury have been allowed to see the sites in reality instead of from photographs since the trial began last week.
Jury members could be seen peering over the railing as if they were trying to gauge the distance to the ground.
From the bridge, the jury walked down into Lions Park where one witness claimed to have seen a man after hearing Caroline’s screams.
Previte sat in the back of an unmarked police car with a towel over his head as the bridge visit was made.
The jury was then taken to the cane field where Caroline’s handbag was unearthed.
At Baldwin Swamp they looked at the park bench where Previte allegedly wrote he was sorry for throwing a girl off the bridge.
The bench was within yards of Lake Ellen, which was extensively searched by police divers during the investigation and a short distance from St Vincent’s Men’s Hostel where Previte was living at the time of the murder.
The trial continues tomorrow.
