A drug addict threw York backpacker Caroline Stuttle to her death as he snatched her bag for cash to fund his habit, an Australian court heard.

Prosecutor Peter Feeney told Queensland Supreme Court in Bundaberg, Australia, that Ian Douglas Previte ignored the screams of former Huntington School student Caroline, 19, to force her over the 30ft-high bridge on April 10, 2002.

She died instantly when her skull fractured and her spine was severed as she hit the ground below.

Caroline had been on her gap year between school and a psychology course at Manchester University, and had been backpacking around Australia with a friend.

She had spent several days picking tomatoes in Bundaberg, a town 350km north of Brisbane, when she was killed as she returned to the caravan park where she was staying from a payphone where she had been making a phone call to England.

Previte, 32, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Caroline and is facing a three-week trial which is being attended by Caroline's brother, Richard. If convicted, Previte could serve a life jail term.

Mr Feeney told a jury of five women and seven men that Caroline must been physically thrown from the Burnett River Traffic Bridge because she was so petite that her head barely came up to its railing.

Making his opening address at the court hearing, Mr Feeney said "an episode of considerable violence" had happened on the bridge walkway.

He claimed that Previte had been sitting on a bench on the bridge as Caroline walked by, and that he had followed her intending to snatch her bag for drugs money.

Mr Feeney claimed Previte had confessed to the killing on three occasions, once to fellow inmates in prison, once to police, and once in writing on a table at a picnic spot in Bundaberg.

The trial judge, Judge Peter Dutney, has warned the jury to 'be dispassionate' about the case.

The hearing continues. .