Huntley 'tried to hide girls' bodies forever'

School caretaker Ian Huntley murdered Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman then hid their bodies in the hope that they would never be found, a jury heard today.

Prosecutor Richard Latham QC said the girls, both aged ten, “fell into the hands of Huntley” shortly after leaving Holly’s home in the village of Soham in Cambridgeshire, England, on the evening of Sunday, August 4 last year.

Huntley murdered them both “for some reason known only to him” then set about disposing of their bodies, he alleged.

Mr Latham was opening the prosecution case at the Old Bailey trial of Huntley, 29, and his ex-girlfriend Maxine Carr, who is accused of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and assisting an offender.

Huntley 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, Cambridgeshire, denies one charge of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and two charges of assisting an offender.

Mr Latham told the jury of seven women and five men: “The prosecution case is that these two girls fell into the hands of Huntley shortly after leaving home.

“For some reason known only to him he chose to murder them both.

“We allege that he went on to remove the bodies from Soham.

“We allege that he hid them in such a way that they would never be found.

“In this objective he was very nearly successful.”

Mr Latham told the jury of seven women and five men: “At 6.15 in the evening of Sunday August 4 of last year two girls, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, left Holly’s home and walked out onto the streets of the small Cambridgeshire town of Soham.

“They were good friends, they went to the same school, they were in the same class.”

Mr Latham said: “Within the first few minutes of leaving, they (the girls) were seen by a number of people.

“It was of course still daylight.

“They didn’t tell anyone they were going out.

“No doubt they felt secure and confident in an area where they felt familiar.

“They lived there, they went to school there, they would have thought they were surrounded by faces they knew.”

The girls’ vanished shortly after 6.30pm, Mr Latham said.

There followed “one of the largest and most public missing persons inquiries that has ever taken place in this country”.

Mr Latham said: “Running in conjunction with the search was a police investigation designed to find whoever was responsible for their disappearance.

“Just under a fortnight later, in the early hours of Saturday August 17, Ian Huntley and Maxine Carr, who lived together at 5 College Close, were arrested on suspicion of the murder of the two girls.”

He said that hours before, just before midnight on the Friday, police had made a “very significant find”.

The families of both girls were in court to hear the prosecution open its case and sat just a few feet from the dock.

Jessica’s parents Sharon Chapman, 44, a classroom assistant at the school the girls attended, and Leslie, 52, sat with her elder sisters Rebecca and Alison, now aged 18 and 15.

Holly’s older brother Oliver chose not to come to court but his parents Kevin Wells, 40, a contract cleaner, and his wife Nicola, 36, a legal secretary, sat near the Chapmans.

The disappearance of their daughters triggered one of the biggest manhunts ever seen in Britain.

The girls’ remains were found 13 days later in an overgrown ditch in Lakenheath, Suffolk, on August 17.