The red Manchester United shirts worn by British schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were cut almost exactly in half as they were removed from their bodies, the Old Bailey was told today.
The jury trying the alleged murderer of the two 10-year-olds,Mr Ian Huntley, was shown photographs of the shirts which showed how they were cut vertically from the bottom hem to the neck almost exactly along the centre of the tops.
Similar cuts were made up the back of the shirts. Mr Richard Latham QC, prosecuting, said: "You can see at once from this photograph that the shirt has been cut effectively in half."
The jury was told yesterday that an attempt had been made to set fire to all the clothing where it was dumped in a bin in a hangar building at Soham Village College, where Mr Huntley worked as caretaker.
Mr Huntley (29) denies the double child murder but has admitted a single charge of conspiring to pervert the course of justice. Ms Maxine Carr (26) a former classroom assistant at the girls' school, denies conspiring with her ex-boyfriend Mr Huntley to pervert the course of justice and two charges of assisting an offender.
Mr Latham then told the jury of the day Mr Huntley and Ms Carr were arrested.
"Once police had the opportunity to appreciate what they have found in the bin, a decision was made to arrest both Huntley and Carr in the early hours of the morning [August 17th].
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"They were not together at the time but were arrested within minutes of each other shortly before 4.30. Within hours of the arrest, quite coincidentally, the bodies were found."
The jury was shown a map which included Soham but focused on an area just east of Lakenheath. A cue arrow pointed to the deposition site on the map shown on the screen.
"That is the precise area you will see next Tuesday," Mr Latham told jurors. They are due to spend Monday viewing Soham, he told them.
Mr Latham told the court about the journey from Soham to Lakenheath. "If you are in a panic and if you've got two bodies in your car that you are desperate to get rid of, we would suggest that there are endless places on the way to Lakenheath that you can dump bodies," he told the court.
"But of course, if you dump bodies in the open, they will be likely be found immediately."