LOCAL people gathered at a parish church in Cornwall yesterday to offer prayers for the murdered schoolgirl, Caroline Dickinson, her family and friends. More than 100 people packed a choral Eucharist service at St Mary Magdalene's Church in Launceston to pay their respects to the quiet girl with a "ready smile" who was raped and killed as she slept alongside classmates in a French youth hostel.
The congregation heard the Rev Tim Newcombe speak of the "fathomless grier" of Caroline's family after the tragedy on Thursday morning.
None of Caroline's classmates, who were finally reunited with their parents at about 1 a.m. yesterday morning, were at the service. The 39 pupils at Launceston College had faced a tiring coach journey home from the village of Pleine Fougeres, Brittany, where police had kept them confined to their youth hostel for three days.
French police are understood to have quizzed all the pupils, including the four girls who were in the dormitory in which Caroline died during a week long trip to the rural village.
Speaking at the service, which featured choristers in red and white gowns, Mr Newcombe said he and other members of the community were still too close to the tragedy to offer adequate words of solace. But he asked parishioners to include Caroline and her family in their prayers and to light candles in her memory in the church.
Mr Newcombe lit the large pastoral candle from the church's sanctuary in her memory and told parishioners: "These events have touched us all. I am far too close, though not nearly as close as some, to those events and I have had no chance to reflect theologically on these events.
"I therefore suggest that instead of making trite remarks and offering cheap solutions that are no help to anyone, we do what we come here to do: open ourselves in prayer to God knowing we do so in the light of the Resurrection.
Leading the prayers, Mr Newcombe said: "We pray for Caroline's parents, her sister and her family. As You stretched Your arms on the cross, be with them in their fathomless grief and enfold them in your arms of mercy.
Speaking after the service in the medieval church, he added: "Launceston is a small tightly knit community. We have all been shocked and devastated by the news of the tragedy . .. we will all give all the support and help we possibly can to everyone who is directly affected."
The group of 13 and 14 year olds were escorted to Cherbourg by French police and were kept away from other passengers aboard the Brittany Ferries' trip to Poole, Dorset. There was also a strong police presence at Launceston College when the party arrived to be hugged and kissed by relieved parents.
The town's county councillor, Mr Mike Nicholls, described how parents had gathered for up to an hour before the arrival of the coach. Teachers had offered tea and coffee as well as words of sympathy as the parents waited. They had been unable to speak to their children for three days.
Meanwhile, in France, the examining magistrate, Mr Gerard Zaug, who is in charge of the investigation, has released photo fit image of a bearded man which has been shown to local residents and shopkeepers in door to door inquiries. However, this has not been released to the press as the likeness of a suspect.