A drug addict was today found guilty of the murder of British backpacker Caroline Stuttle in Australia.
Ian Previte (32) was charged with robbery and murder after Ms Stuttle (19) fell to her death from the Burnett River Traffic Bridge in the Queensland town of Bundaberg during a violent bag snatch on April 10th, 2002.
She suffered a fractured skull and severed spine on hitting the ground.
Previte was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder and received 10 years, to run concurrently, for the robbery.
Justice Peter Dutney said: "Miss Stuttle should have been enjoying the holiday of a lifetime. Instead, your act of throwing her off a bridge in the dark in a strange country for a miserable few dollars . . . killed her in the most dreadful way."
During the trial, the court heard that Previte had smoked marijuana and taken a cocktail of drugs before robbing and murdering Ms Stuttle.
She had been in Bundaberg only a few days, working as a tomato picker, when she was killed as she returned to a caravan park after making a phone call to her boyfriend in England.
PA