Huntley admits cutting off Holly and Jessica’s clothes
He took the clothes back to Soham Village College, where he worked as the caretaker, and set them on fire, his Old Bailey murder trial was told. The charred remnants of the 10-year-olds’ red Manchester United shirts and other clothes were later found hidden in a bin at the college, with hair that matched Huntley’s mixed in with them, the court heard.
Stephen Coward QC, for Huntley, said: “The case for my client is, having cut off the clothes of the girls at the deposition site he brought them back to Soham, put them inside one of the bins that we have seen outside the hangar, set fire to the contents and then replaced the bin inside the hangar.”
The dramatic admission came as the court heard the first forensic evidence in the case. And the jury was told it would be hearing a list of 21 “admissions” made on Huntley’s behalf today. The court had previously heard that Huntley, who denies the double child murder, was unlikely to deny that the girls died while he was alone with them in his house in Soham. He also took their bodies to the ditch near Lakenheath, Suffolk, where they were found 13 days later, said prosecutor Richard Latham.
The prosecution alleges that Huntley set fire to the clothes and also tried to burn the bodies in a bid to destroy forensic evidence.
No traces of semen were later found on the clothes and a forensic expert said that could have been due to their condition, or because there was no sperm.
No semen was found on swab samples taken from the girls’ bodies and Huntley’s car. No fingerprints belonging to the girls were found inside Huntley’s house and two human bloodstains were found to belong to him and his then girlfriend, Maxine Carr. Huntley, 29, denies murdering the 10-year-old friends but has admitted conspiring to pervert the course of justice. Carr, 26, denies conspiring to pervert the course of justice and two charges of assisting an offender.
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