Did Montes strike here?

Scotland Yard is to be asked to investigate whether the killer of Caroline Dickinson struck in London.

Spanish waiter Francisco Arce Montes, who was jailed for 30 years yesterday for the rape and murder of Caroline, lived in London for four years.

Now Devon and Cornwall police will ask every force in Britain to re-examine their files on outstanding sex attacks and attempted abductions.

After Montes's conviction yesterday in Rennes, the full file prepared by the French authorities on the case will be released to officers in Britain. This includes full details of when the serial sex attacker entered and left the country.

Montes lived in London between 1993 and 1997 - at the height of his campaign of sex attacks across Europe.

He rented a flat in Earl's Court and regularly crossed to France, including the visit to Brittany in July 1996 when he killed Caroline. During this time he would illegally sub-let the flat to girl backpackers and students.

A senior detective said: "It's difficult to believe that the man who has been a prolific sex offender across Europe for many years did not commit crimes while he was living in London."

South Wales police already want to question Montes about a string of sex attacks in the Nineties. They say he bears an uncanny resemblance to the suspect wanted for sex attacks along the Gower coastline.

Montes was jailed for five years for sex attacks in Germany in 1989 and on release was connected to at least five more incidents with young girls in France, culminating in Caroline's murder.

A year afterwards he was arrested in northern Spain but jumped bail and fled to America. In his absence he was sentenced to 11 years' imprisonment and is also wanted for offences in Switzerland.

He was arrested in Miami after breaking into two youth hostels in the middle of the night.

In 1995 he was suspected of breaching security at the Wimbledon tennis championships in an attempt to harass Spanish star Conchita Martinez.

Montes rented a small ?80-a-week bedsit in Earl's Court and claimed unemployment benefit while working as a waiter.

He also claimed income support, housing benefit and sickness benefit but left owing ?1,000 in unpaid rent when the authorities suspected his scam and demanded he declare the contents of his bank account.

Montes routinely approached female backpackers near his home in Earl's Court, offering them cheap accommodation in his flat when he went away.

He would then return to his apartment after nightfall, saying there had been a "change of plan", and that he would in fact be sleeping in the same room as them.

Montes, already a convicted rapist when

he lived in London, would pester the backpackers for sex. Joaquim Estriga, 40, who lived in the room next to Montes for three years, told the court: "He was an expert at spotting easy targets. Time after time I would get these girls banging on the door in the middle of the night, terrified and in tears because of something that had happened with Montes."

Neighbour Noel O'Sullivan, 47, said: "He was a strange, difficult man with a furious temper. He was big and aggressive."

Gordon Butler, 48, who lived in the flat above Montes, said: "He seemed to have a tenuous grip on reality."