POLICE in Australia have made a major breakthrough in the hunt for the killer of British backpacker Caroline Stuttle.

A man already serving a prison sentence for another offence has been arrested and is being questioned about the death of Caroline, of Huntington, York, in Queensland ten months ago.

Police hope to take him to the scene of the killing, at Burnett Bridge, in Bundaberg, about 220 miles from Brisbane.

Police in Queensland launched a massive investigation after 19-year-old Caroline was found dead under the bridge last April.

They carried out mass DNA testing on the local population after saliva was found on the bridge.

However, it is understood the suspect now being questioned was identified through information received rather than as a result of the scientific sampling.

Yesterday, Caroline's artist father Alan said he was being kept informed by police of the progress of the investigation and was hopeful of a breakthrough.

"It is like one big jigsaw puzzle and hopefully it is starting to come together, but it is still very early days," he said.

However, he said: "This man has not been convicted or charged and we have to keep an open mind."

Caroline had been enjoying a gap-year adventure with her best friend, Sarah Holiday, when the pair arrived in Bundaberg to earn money picking tomatoes.

She had walked to the town's post office to phone her boyfriend and was on the ten-minute walk back to the Riverdale Caravan Park when she was attacked.

The alarm was raised when she failed to return to her friend and her body was found lying under the bridge.

Police believe she was either pushed or fell over the parapet of the bridge as she was being robbed.

More than six months after Caroline's death, her blue-grey Diesel handbag was found in a sugar cane field a mile-and-a-half from the bridge, during the harvesting season.

The teenager had been due to begin a psychology course at Manchester University after spending the summer in Australia.