A 30-YEAR-OLD man charged in Australia with the murder of York backpacker Caroline Stuttle today asked a court for more time to review police evidence before entering a plea in the case.

Ian Douglas Previte declined to enter a plea during the hearing in Bundaberg Magistrates Court. He was remanded in custody until May 27.

Previte, who was charged on February 21 following a ten-month police investigation, faces a maximum of life imprisonment if convicted.

Caroline's body was found on April 10 last year in Bundaberg, 220 miles north of the Queensland state capital, Brisbane.

Police said the 19-year-old former York College student had walked to the Bundaberg post office to phone her boyfriend and was walking back to a caravan site when she was attacked. She died from severe head injuries and spinal damage.

Caroline, from Huntington, had arrived in Bundaberg with her best friend, Sarah Holiday, only a few days earlier to pick tomatoes to earn some money.

Caroline's artist father, Alan, was inspired by her adventurous spirit to sell his gallery in Micklegate, York, and use the proceeds to travel the world.

Updated: 11:04 Tuesday, April 29, 2003