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.