RENNES – The Spaniard accused of murdering British schoolgirl Caroline Dickinson has told a French court he did not mean to kill her, only assault her sexually, it was reported Wednesday.

Spanish waiter Francisco Arce Montes, 54, told the court in Rennes, northern France, he was drunk when he entered the girl’s hostel room in Pleine-Fougeres in July 1996.

He told the court: “I didn’t want to kill her… I just wanted to make a sexual assault.”

He said he believed the 13-year-old was still breathing when he left her.

Montes then said he had committed the offence after being interrupted during another sex attack earlier that day, 18 July.
 
“I’d like to say I am not a murderer. I didn’t have any intention of killing Caroline,” he said.
 
Finding Caroline asleep, he lay next to her, touched her and put his hand over her mouth, he said.

“I was aroused. I wanted to do what I had done before so I lifted up the covers and I wanted to stroke her,” he said slowly in Spanish.

“I’d like to say I am not a murderer. I didn’t have any intention of killing Caroline,” he said.

Caroline’s parents John and Sue and their surviving daughter Jenny watched in court as Montes denied the murder. 

Pressed by the judge, Montes said he believed Caroline was still breathing when he left the room.

Asked how he knew this, he added: “I don’t remember, but I don’t think she was dead. I thought she was still asleep.”

He earlier told the court he had spent the day drinking whisky and taking pills. “I was very ill,” he said.

Montes later refused requests by the judge and Caroline’s father to speak more widely about his obsession with hostels, saying he would only comment on events in Pleine-Fougeres and nearby Saint Lunaire.

After Montes’ appearance, Caroline Dickinson’s mother Sue took the stand, describing what a happy girl her daughter was.

Later, two of Caroline’s fellow pupils told the court how they saw an “evil” stranger on the night she was killed.

Amy White, now 21, and two classmates said they encountered the man as they went to the toilet in the hostel where Caroline died.

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She identified Francisco Arce Montes from police photos after Caroline’s death.

“He looked as evil in the papers as he did that night,” she said.

Another classmate, Laura Davey, also now 21, said she remembered seeing a man with piercing eyes loitering in front of the hostel.

“He kept on looking up at the building and I could hear his feet crunching on the gravel,” she added.

An English girl later relayed the details of an attack she suffered earlier on the night Caroline died, which Montes has admitted carrying out.

Kate Wrigley, 13 at the time but now in her early 20s, waived her right to anonymity to tell the court she was staying at the Saint-Lunaire Youth Hostel, about 30 miles from Pleine-Fougeres, when she awoke in a distressed state.

She said was having trouble breathing and found her face red and swollen and her arms and legs bruised and scratched.

The next day the school party returned to England without complaining to French police about the incident.

But she later contacted police after her parents saw television news reports about the murder of Caroline Dickinson.

Prosecutors told the court Monday that Montes was a serial sexual predator of young girls during lengthy travels through Europe and South America over a 15-year period.

Montes, a waiter and former lorry driver, denies charges of rape and murder.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news