DETECTIVES are looking at a possible link between the unsolved murder of North-East student Sara Cameron and a man accused of killing two Spanish teenagers.

Finnish-born Sara, 23, who was studying European Sports Management at Northumbria University, in Newcastle, was killed three years ago on Good Friday as she returned from a night out in the city.

Northumbria Police detectives investigating the case have asked to be given DNA samples from Tony King, who is being held in Malaga, on the Costa del Sol.

Mr King, a barman who changed his name from Bromwich, is awaiting trial for the murders of Sonia Carabantes, 17, and Rocio Wanninkhof, 19.

The approach for a DNA sample has been made through the team at Scotland Yard that was set up eight years ago to plot his activities.

Detectives are also looking to see if Mr King was in the UK when 13-year-old Surrey schoolgirl Milly Dowler was murdered.

The team is being asked to look at another nine unsolved rapes and murders. The Northumbria force said yesterday that it was looking at a possible link between Mr King and Sara Cameron's murder.

But it stressed that there was no evidence to suggest a link and it was asking for a DNA sample as a routine part of its inquiries.

Mr King was convicted of a number of sexual assaults on women in London 17 years ago.

Ms Cameron, 23, who was found dead in a field in Earsdon, North Tyneside, had been suffocated and some of her clothes scattered in nearby woods .

Ms Cameron had been to Newcastle, celebrating with friends after landing a dream job at the Sydney Olympics.

She was last seen taking a Metro train from Newcastle to Shiremoor, near her home on the outskirts of Whitley Bay.

Her devastated father, Ray, collected the degree that his daughter should have received at a ceremony in Newcastle City Hall, the following year.

A memorial fund is being set up to help foreign students on the course she was taking at the time of her death and her colleagues have held events to raise money for the fund.