Two people other than the man accused of killing the British backpacker Caroline Stuttle have confessed to her murder, an Australian court was told today.

Ms Stuttle, 19, from York, died after allegedly being robbed of her purse and thrown off Burnett River Bridge in Bundaberg, Queensland in April 2002. Ian Douglas Previte, 32, has pleaded not guilty to the murder and robbery.

Denis Lynch, defending, told a Supreme Court jury in Bundaberg that Ross James Graham, 31, now on remand in Maryborough Prison, and James Hine Campbell, 31, of Victoria, who was living in Bundaberg, a coastal city 350km north of Brisbane, at the time of Ms Stuttle's death had confessed to the killing.

Mr Lynch said: "The defence says if it is reasonably possible that any one of them could have killed Caroline Stuttle, it means the Crown hasn't proved its case."

He also said that a 17-year-old, Mylynn McQuilty, had told police that he was in Bundaberg on the night of the killing and knew of a group of Aboriginal youths claiming to have thrown a backpacker off the bridge.

Mr Lynch said that Mr Graham had confessed to nine people in 2002, including his wife, Melissa Jones, her sister and their mother.

Mr Graham allegedly told Ms Jones: "I got a mobile phone and $1.80 (from Ms Stuttle), which was enough to buy a good meat pie." Ms Jones told her husband that he looked like the man police were searching for and he replied: "Yeah, don't I?"

The court was also told that Mr Graham began calling himself the backpacker murderer to his wife's sister, saying that he had killed Ms Stuttle because she looked like his wife.

In court today, Mr Graham denied making these claims, along with other statements he is alleged to have made to four patients and a nurse while he was in the alcohol and drug section of the Royal Brisbane Hospital in June 2002.

A female acquaintance of Mr Graham's had also told police that he claimed to have been bitten by Ms Stuttle as she went over the bridge, and had shown off the bite mark.

Under cross-examination by Peter Feeney, prosecuting, Mr Graham said that he did not remember much about the months in question because he had been addicted to prescription drugs. He said he had also been in a turbulent relationship with his wife, who sometimes bit him.

The court was also told that Mr Campbell had confessed under threat of attack by a homeless friend. Mr Campbell told the court today he knew nothing about Ms Stuttle's death.

Mr McQuilty, the teenager, said the claims that he told police he had been in Bundaberg at the time of the killing were untrue, and he had actually been camping with a friend at the time.

Mr Feeney, in his closing address to the jury, said that the defence had tried to distract it with stories of the three men. "This morning you saw three people who did not kill Caroline Stuttle," he said.

Mr Feeney said that the colourful defence evidence should not obscure the fact that Mr Previte had confessed time and again to the killing in conversations with fellow prisoners and police.

"He said it in a cruel way in a way almost to extend the limits of barbarity," Mr Feeney said.

"He said it in a way to minimise the consequences to himself.

"He said it when he was scared of getting caught and he said it when he couldn't stand the pressure."

Mr Lynch will begin his closing address tomorrow, followed by a summing up by Justice Peter Dutney. The jury was expected to start considering its verdict tomorrow afternoon.

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