Ayliffe-Chung had been in Queensland for six months before she was stabbed to death at a North Queensland backpackers in front of 30 witnesses on Tuesday night.
Advertisement
A man believed to be French national Smail Ayad, 29, was charged today with the murder of Miss Ayliffe-Chung, from Wirksworth, along with the attempted murder of two other people.
Tom Jackson, a 30-year-old British man who was also staying at the hostel, was also stabbed and in critical condition following the attack.
Mr Jackson remains in a critical but stable condition in Townsville Base Hospital, almost 36 hours after the attack.
Gollschewski said investigators would also consider whether mental health or drug misuse were factors in the incident in which a dog was also fatally injured.
She had been doing farm work near Home Hill in an attempt to extend her visa, 9 News reported.
Police said the man charged would appear at Townsville Magistrates Court on Friday.
Queensland police said that Ayad’s “demeanour remains unchanged” since his arrest.
It is alleged Ayad used the Arabic phrase “Allahu akbar” both during the attack and his arrest, and while police have so far ruled out any links to extremism, they are still investigating whether the suspect had a romantic interest in Ms Ayliffe-Chung.
Ayad was taken to hospital on Wednesday with non-life-threatening injuries.
“There is absolutely no indication of any form of radicalisation or political motive in this matter”, he said.
He was taken from the Townsville watchhouse by a police convoy following the hearing.
Police said one of their lines of inquiry was finding out whether the suspect had an “obsession” with Ayliffe-Chung.
The 21-year-old studied psychology and childcare before travelling to Surfers Paradise, in the state of Queensland, and worked as a nightclub waitress.
The man had been on Australia on a temporary visa since March and appeared to have “no local connections”, the deputy police commissioner said.
She tweeted a picture of herself laying flowers and said: “Visited Ayr and #HomeHill with consular staff to meet local police and United Kingdom nationals”.
“Police were confronted with a bad scene when they arrived”, Superintendent Ray Rohweder said at a press conference.
In a statement read by her partner Stewart Cormack, the victim’s mother Rosie Ayliffe said that her daughter was “full of the kind of open-minded compassion for life that you don’t see that often”.
“Not only was she kind and amusing, she was clever, sassy, with a sense of fun”, Stewart Cormack said.
Australian Federal Police and the country’s Border Force are also involved in the investigation.
Advertisement
Her half-sister Nicola Chung said, she was “bubbly, carefree and had trained to be a nanny, because she loved children”.
