11:46am UK, Tuesday June 15, 2004

Police may investigate the activities of Francisco Arce Montes, jailed for raping and murdering schoolgirl Caroline Dickinson, during the time he lived in Britain.  

Francisco Montes

The 54-year-old Spanish waiter lived in London in the early 1990s, renting a flat in the Earl's Court area.      

Montes reportedly lured girls back to his London home, from where he made a number of trips to France.         

Superintendent Andy Pierce, of the Devon and Cornwall force, said it is their intention to "further liaise with the French authorities".         

He said the force will explore what information is held by the French authorities "with a view to making more inquiries about Montes's activities in the UK".         

But any investigation would have to wait until any appeal by Montes was dealt with, said the officer, who was with the Dickinson family during the trial in Rennes.         

The 51-year-old superintendent, whose involvement with the case began in 1998, put his scheduled March 31 retirement from the force on hold to see the Montes case through to its conclusion.