BRITAIN: The clothes worn by two 10- year-old girls when they disappeared from their village home a year ago last August were cut from their dead bodies and burned in a bin. That bin was later found near the home of the man accused of killing them, the Old Bailey heard yesterday.
Charred remains of matching red Manchester United football jerseys, as well as everything else the two friends had been wearing, had been placed in a bin which was found in a hangar on the grounds of Soham Village College, where Mr Ian Huntley was the resident caretaker, the court heard.
Mr Huntley (29) has been charged with the murder of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman. He has pleaded not guilty to the murder charges but has pleaded guilty to conspiring with his former girlfriend, Ms Maxine Carr, to fabricate an alibi about his whereabouts at the time of the girls' deaths.
Ms Carr (26) has pleaded not guilty to two counts of conspiring to pervert the course of justice and one count of aiding an offender.
The court has already heard that Mr Huntley will not dispute that the girls died in his house, that he was the only other person in the house at the time and that he disposed of their bodies. The crown alleges he lured the pair into his home early on the evening of August 4th, 2002, and murdered them soon after.
In its fourth day, the trial before Mr Justice Moses heard continued opening argument from crown prosecutor Mr Richard Latham QC, who has told the jury that evidence will satisfy them that Mr Huntley is guilty of double child murder.
The parents of both girls, Kevin and Nicola Wells and Leslie and Sharon Chapman, were in court to hear the agonising details which have yet to touch on the method of their daughters' deaths.
Mr Latham showed the jury of seven women and five men a photograph of the clothing remains that were found in a hangar which police opened with keys found in Mr Huntley's house.
Mr Latham said police found the charred clothing in the bottom of a bin and that a plastic bin-liner placed on top of them contained hair from Mr Huntley's head and his fingerprints. "We say the clothing was in the bottom of the bin and, after the clothing was there, the bin-liner had been put in it and spread and his fingerprints are on the spreading process, as it were, of the bin-liner," Mr Latham said.
The bin contained "all the clothes of Holly and Jessica, right down to their trainers and underwear. Each item of clothing had been cut off from the wearer," Mr Latham said. Mr Huntley's hair was found among the remains of the clothing, he said, adding that an obvious attempt had been made to incinerate the clothes.
Police visiting his house noticed washing on the line, even though it was pouring with rain, and said the ground floor was "immaculately tidy and there was a strong smell of lemony cleaning product", said Mr Latham.
The prosecutor said that Mr Huntley's attempt to destroy the girls' clothing was indicative of "a devious and calculating mind which was well able to think about what he needed to do to distract attention away from himself."
It also fitted a pattern which saw Mr Huntley conscientiously cleaning his car, a red five-door Ford Fiesta, even while his neighbours were anxiously searching for the girls on the Monday after they disappeared. Mr Latham said evidence would be presented that Mr Huntley replaced the tyres of his car and bribed the staff of the garage where the job was done to write another licence number on the invoice.
The tyres were not in need of changing, Mr Latham said, and Huntley's actions were those of a guilty man trying to ensure that his car could not be traced to the site in Lakenheath, Suffolk, a 40- minute drive from Soham, where the bodies of Holly and Jessica were found on August 17th, 2002.
"We say it's the reaction of a guilty man. Only a person who had done something wrong would change the tyres. Secondly, it shows a man who is thinking calmly and carefully and is calculating his way forward," Mr Latham said.
The court also heard that Mr Huntley had badgered police for clues about the investigation into the girls' disappearance and used the information to cover his own tracks. He changed his statement to police regarding the time he had initially said he had sighted the girls outside his house and had asked police and reporters about DNA and how long it lasted.
He lied about having seen another red Ford Fiesta and a man running down the street carrying a bin-liner, Mr Latham said, in an effort to throw police on to a phony trail. He also gave numerous television and radio interviews, some of which were replayed in court, in which he professed concern and confusion about the whereabouts of the girls and wondered why no one would come forward with information which would help find them.
Mr Huntley and Ms Carr spent the morning in court but Mr Huntley did not return to court after the luncheon recess because, his defence barrister, Mr Stephen Coward, QC, said, he was feeling unwell.
Mr Justice Moses has imposed strict reporting restrictions on the trial proceedings, including a ban on media describing how the defendants look or appear in the dock.