Justice has been done in the name of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman: Ian Huntley has begun to serve the only sentence for murder allowable under British law - life imprisonment - and Maxine Carr, guilty of conspiring with him to pervert the course of justice, will serve out the remainder of her three and a half year sentence, half of it suspended.
Detained on remand for 16 months before her conviction yesterday, she will be freed in a matter of months but must live the rest of her life with an immovable stain upon her character and, in all probability, a tortured conscience.
It is possible to feel some pity for Carr. She did not murder the children, nor cause them any harm. But, blinded by love, she lied to protect a man for whom she had already provided an alibi against an accusation of rape. Her crime compared to his was minor but her stupidity was monumental. As for Ian Huntley, it is hard to the point of impossibility to hold any view other than that he should remain in prison until he dies. As the Old Bailey trial judge sentencing him pointed out, he showed no mercy, no regret for his vile crimes. The evil that Huntley visited upon two families and a small community in rural England will resonate down the annals of British criminal history.
Now that the case has ended, there are urgent matters to hand. The British Home Secretary, Mr Blunkett, had no option yesterday but to order an inquiry into events that long preceded the deaths of Jessica and Holly. It is deeply disturbing that when Soham Village College sought to check Huntley's past after he applied for a job as a caretaker, it was not told of the four allegations of rape against him and the four allegations of unlawful sexual intercourse and indecent assault against girls, aged 11 to 15 years. Neither was it told of allegations of burglary and theft.
The explanations offered yesterday point to systemic and policy failings which should not go unnoticed here. For a variety of reasons, which were advanced by the police yesterday, the record of serious sex offence allegations against Huntley was not disclosed by police in Humberside, where Huntley used to live, to their colleagues in Cambridgeshire, and was therefore not relayed back to the school. Had it been, he would not have been employed and Holly and Jessica would be alive today.
Police forces everywhere are rightly protective of criminal intelligence information. Ian Huntley had no criminal record at the time of his job application but Humberside Police, despite Huntley changing his name from Nixon (a fact known to them) had a wealth of disturbing information that made him utterly unsuitable for employment near children.
The restrictions imposed by the UK's Data Protection Act and hitherto understandable police reluctance to disclose certain forms of information will have to change as a result of this awful and tragic case. Holly and Jessica have died but they have left a legacy.