A loving phone call - then my girlfriend died

The boyfriend of British backpacker Caroline Stuttle told a court today of their last phone call - minutes before she was killed.

Ian Nelson, 27, who works for HSBC bank, told the supreme court in Bundaberg, Queensland, that he and Caroline had been dating for over two years when she left to travel around Australia.

On 10 April 2002, she rang him, saying she had walked over the Burnett River Bridge to a phone box. "We talked for over an hour. It was what I'd been doing, what she'd been doing. She said she hadn't been successful getting work but she seemed fine, her normal self. It was a very affectionate phone call".

Mr Nelson said Caroline's mobile phone rang while he was talking, and she told him it was Sarah [ Holliday, a friend] checking she was all right as she had been a long while.

"Caroline said she would give Sarah two rings when she was on her way back". Minutes later Miss Stuttle, 19, was dead. The court has heard how she screamed in terror as she was thrown from the bridge.

Ian Douglas Previte, 32, a drug addict and drifter, is charged with robbing and murdering Miss Stuttle. He is pleading not guilty.

Today an emotional Mr Nelson, who has flown from his York home, struggled to speak as he told the court of how he stayed in contact with his girlfriend. "It was always her plan [to go abroad]. When I met her she was working in Pizza Hut in York because she was saving for uni and to travel," he said.

"We intended to stay in contact. We set up an email account. I went to an internet cafe or to her mother's house to use the computer."

Answering questions from prosecutor Peter Feeney, he said he knew Caroline had arrived in Bundaberg to look for some fruit picking work and was staying at a caravan park.

A friend of Miss Stuttle, Nottingham electrician Lee Longworth, was staying at the caravan park when she and Miss Holliday, 20, arrived on 7 April. He told the court that the night Caroline died, he and Miss Holliday were watching TV. He said: "Caroline was going to ring twice to let Sarah know she was on her way back.

"Some time after 9pm the mobile rang twice, then rang again. Sarah said Caroline asked her to meet her. About 20 minutes later Sarah came running in out of breath and upset because she couldn't find Caroline.

"We walked to the phone box. Sarah rang Caroline's mobile many, times. At first it rang, then went dead." The pair searched for their friend, then reported her missing to police. Mr Longworth also said the girls had told him to use a "secret knock" when he visited. "It was because another guy in the caravan park had been pestering them."

The trial continues.