Soham parents arrive for murder trial

The parents of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman arrived at court today to hear the prosecution case against the man accused of their murders.

Kevin Wells, 40, and his wife Nicola, 36, and Sharon Chapman, 44, and her husband Leslie, 52, entered the Old Bailey together after walking past waiting photographers.

They faced a harrowing day as prosecutor Richard Latham QC outlined to the jury how Ian Huntley allegedly murdered the two 10-year-olds on August 4 last year.

He was also accusing the former caretaker’s ex-girlfriend Maxine Carr of conspiring with Huntley to pervert the course of justice.

The families, sitting just a few feet from the dock, were hearing details of their daughters’ last moments as the prosecution set out its case.

Huntley, 29, denies the double child murder but has pleaded guilty to a single charge of conspiring to pervert the course of justice.

Carr, 26, a former classroom assistant at the girls’ primary school in Soham, Cambs, denies one charge of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and two charges of assisting an offender.

The trial judge Mr Justice Moses reminded the jurors yesterday that the defendants were innocent unless the prosecution could prove its case against them.

And he told the seven women and five men to “put aside emotion” as they heard details of the deaths of the two 10-year-olds.

“The death of anyone, and perhaps especially children, gives rise to understandable concern and emotion,” he said.

“But the courtroom, this courtroom, is not the place for any expressions of emotion.

“It is the place where evidence is called, sifted, and where cool and calm consideration of the evidence takes place, uninfluenced by emotion, uninfluenced by sympathy.

“Only by your understanding and appreciation of that principle can a fair trial take place.”

The disappearance of the two best friends on August 4 last year triggered one of the biggest manhunts ever seen in Britain.

Their parents made a series of public appeals for their daughters’ safe return.

But hope turned to despair 13 days later when the girls’ bodies were found in an overgrown ditch in Lakenheath, Suffolk, on August 17.