Statements from the families of murdered schoolgirls Holly Wells and JessicaChapman were read today to the jury trying their alleged killer Ian Huntley.
None of the parents of the two 10-year-olds were expected to be called intothe witness box but their statements were read to the court by the leadprosecution lawyer Richard Latham QC.
He began with a statement from Holly's mother Nicola.Jurors were hearing the prosecution open the case against Huntley, 29, and hisex-girlfriend Maxine Carr.
Huntley, a former caretaker at Soham Village College, denies two charges ofmurder but admits a single count of conspiring to pervert the course ofjustice.
Carr, 26, a former classroom assistant at the girls' school, denies conspiringto pervert the course of justice and two charges of assisting an offender.
The jury returned yesterday from a two-day site visit to the girls' home townof Soham, Cambridgeshire, and Lakenheath, Suffolk, where they retraced thevictims' final steps and were shown inside the house the defendants used toshare, 5 College Close.
The girls went missing on Sunday August 4 last year and their bodies werefound in a remote ditch near Lakenheath 13 days later.
The prosecution's first witnesses were expected to give evidence later today,on day eight of the trial.
Both Huntley and Carr were in the dock at the Old Bailey to hear thestatements from the families.
PA