Holly and Jessica murder trial begins

The murder trial of Ian Huntley, accused of killing Soham schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, was due to begin today.

The best friends, both 10, triggered one of the biggest manhunts ever seen in Britain when they vanished on August 4, last year.

Their bodies were found in an overgrown ditch in Lakenheath, Suffolk, 13 days later. Huntley, 29, has always denied their murder.

His trial, and that of his former girlfriend Maxine Carr, is formally due to begin at the Old Bailey today.

But the prosecution was not expected to set out its evidence against the pair until later in the week.

The historic courtroom number one will first provide the backdrop to administrative exercises, including the selection of a 12-strong jury to try the case.

Proceedings will be watched by the parents of both girls, who were expected to attend today’s hearing.

It was not yet known if Huntley, a former school caretaker at Soham, Cambs, and Carr, 26, would be present.

Carr, a former classroom assistant at the girls’ primary school, denies one charge of conspiring to pervert the course of justice and two charges of assisting an offender.

Huntley denies two charges of murder but admitted a single charge of conspiring to pervert the course of justice at an earlier court hearing.

Both have been kept in custody since their arrests on August 17, last year, the same day the girls’ bodies were found 17 miles away from Soham.

The schoolgirls’ disappearance captured the attention of the nation for weeks.

Both youngsters were wearing Manchester United shirts marked with the number 7 worn by the then United and England star David Beckham when they disappeared.

They had been playing at Holly’s home during the afternoon while the Wells family enjoyed a barbecue.

The majorette’s parents Kevin, 40, and Nicola, 36, photographed the happy friends smiling in their matching red tops an hour before they vanished.

The picture would later be used for countless appeals for help in finding the girls.

Mr and Mrs Wells and Jessica’s parents Sharon, 43, and Leslie, 52, braved the cameras on several occasions to make impassioned public pleas for their daughters’ safe return.

But hope gave way to despair on August 17 when the girls’ bodies were found. An inquest heard that they were too decomposed for pathologists to establish any cause of death.

Richard Latham QC, prosecuting, is expected to set out the British Crown’s case of how they died on Wednesday, when the trial begins in earnest.

Stephen Coward QC will defend Huntley, and Carr will be represented by Michael Hubbard QC.

The trial judge is Mr Justice Moses, whose last high profile case at the Old Bailey was that of renegade MI5 officer David Shayler.