Island skull may be of missing Briton

Detectives are investigating the discovery of a human skull on an Australian island where a British advertising executive disappeared while on holiday two years ago.

Laboratory tests will decide whether the skull is that of David Eason, who was last seen in March 2001 during a holiday on Fraser Island, off Australia's east coast. The skull was found by a British tourist yesterday near Lake Wabby, where Mr Eason, 46, said he planned to walk alone after leaving a tour group.

Police scientists were due to arrive on the island from Brisbane last night and begin a "thorough investigation" of the sealed-off area before taking the skull back to the state capital for tests.

Relatives of Mr Eason, from Battersea, south London, feared he had been murdered and buried on the island and criticised the local police after they refused to open a criminal investigation. Claims of an attack by dingoes were fuelled when a nine-year-old British boy was fatally mauled on the island weeks after Mr Eason disappeared. But Mr Eason's family said there was no evidence for the claims.

Joanna Pearce, 29, Mr Eason's girlfriend, said: "You do wonder every day what happened to him. It would be nice to have a solution."