Huntley spoke of girls 'as if they were dead'

SOHAM-ACCUSED Ian Huntley set "alarm bells ringing" for a police special constable when he spoke about the 10-year-olds in the past tense, his Old Bailey murder trial heard yesterday.

The caretaker also told a friend that schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were dead just three days after they disappeared and 10 days before their bodies were found.

He created suspicion again when he told a hitch-hiker that he was the last person to see the girls alive, the court was told.

The series of conversations all took place within three days of the girls disappearing, the jury heard.

Hitch-hiker Robert Jeynes, who shared a car with Huntley and his then girlfriend Maxine Carr on August 6, described how Huntley told him he was the last person to see the girls alive.

He considered warning Huntley not to say such a thing, adding: "When you watch films, it's always the last one who sees them alive that gets done for murder."

Asked to describe Carr's demeanour when talking about the girls, Mr Jeynes said: "She was very cold there was no emotion there, which I would have expected."

One day later, salesman Martin Mahoney told Huntley: "This is an awful business," adding: "I suppose they will find them."

He said Huntley replied: "No, they'll be dead."

Mr Mahoney said he then told Huntley: "I have got three daughters of my own and if one of my daughters went missing, you wouldn't give up after a couple of days."

He said Huntley again replied: "No, they're dead."

Later that same day, Constable Sharon Gilbert said Huntley had used the past tense about the girls throughout their 25-minute conversation, including saying that one of the schoolgirls "loved" her father a lot, instead of "loves".

"It stuck in my mind straightaway," she said. "All the time we were having this conversation that was ringing alarm bells, something wasn't right."

She said Huntley told her police had been to search the college that morning, even lifting the floorboards.

Ms Gilbert questioned why they were searching the college when the girls were pupils at St Andrew's Primary School. "He then said 'If I told you I'd have to kill you'."

Huntley, 29, denies murdering the 10-year-old friends but has admitted conspiring to pervert the course of justice. Carr, 26, a former classroom assistant at the girls' primary school, denies conspiring to pervert the course of justice and two charges of assisting an offender.

The prosecution alleges she gave Huntley a false alibi for the day the girls went missing, August 4 last year.

Two witnesses told the court Huntley had mentioned to them the previous caretaker had been sacked over a relationship with a girl and that he might still have a spare set of keys and the alarm codes for the college.