Crucial phone evidence in Soham murder case

The Soham murder trial was told today of a number of mobile and land line phone calls and text messages between the defendants on the weekend that the girls disappeared.

Richard Latham QC, prosecuting, told the Old Bailey: “To know where a telephone was, or was not, can be very informative.

“Telephone evidence, we say, is very important in this case.

“You are going to hear about telephone calls on land lines and also on mobile phones.”

He showed the jury a list of phone numbers including defendant Ian Huntley’s own mobile number.

A second mobile number belonging to Soham Village College, used by Huntley because of his job, and three land lines – the main school number, its community education office and the kitchen – were also detailed.

The list included fellow defendant Maxine Carr’s mobile number and the home number of Huntley’s father in Littleport.

“Finally, and very importantly, Jessica had her own mobile and that number is there,” Mr Latham said.

He told the jury the significance of the phone records may not be what was said in the conversations but where the people were when the calls were made.

Mr Latham said Carr had gone on a trip to Grimsby, more than 100 miles away, on Saturday August 3, the day before the girls disappeared in Soham.

Carr returned to Soham on Tuesday August 6.

While Carr was in Grimsby, there was a series of phone calls between her and Huntley.

The first from Carr to Huntley was at 11.07am followed by a return call at 12.57, Mr Latham said.

Phone records show Carr was in Grimsby and she was seen out on the evening of the Saturday with her mother.

But there were discrepancies between when Carr spoke to Huntley that evening and what she later told police.

Carr told detectives she rang Huntley before going out on the Saturday but he told her he had just come back from shopping and needed to put that away.

When she returned from her night out, there had been a text message from Huntley asking where she was, she admitted to police.

The next day, Sunday – the day the girls disappeared – there were a number of calls between the defendants. At 9.53am Huntley’s mobile was used to call Carr’s mobile.

At 6.24pm there was a call between Carr and Huntley’s mobile lasting two minutes 13 seconds – what Mr Latham described as “two important minutes”.

A text message was then sent by Carr’s mobile at 6.30pm.

“After arrest, and I emphasise this, Carr was to say that Huntley phoned her at around 6pm and asked where she was going out that night. She told him they were going round the corner to look at a band.”

"His response was that she hadn't told him she was going out,'' Mr Latham continued.

“In that call Huntley mentioned that some girls had asked about her but he was more bothered about her going out than the girls.

“She thought it was about 6.30pm when Huntley rang her. She was at her mother’s kitchen table and he said ’oh, you’re going out then’ but he was fine.

“Carr said she sent a text message saying ’don’t make me feel bad that I’m with my family’ and didn’t receive a reply.”

Mr Latham said Carr’s memory of the call at 6.24pm was that Huntley had called her but it was the other way round.

He added: “Importantly, we say she was wrong when she says she was told by Huntley during that call at around 6.30 that he had seen and spoken to the girls because we say all the evidence is he hadn’t seen them by 6.24pm, the time of that call.

He added that Carr and her mother were seen out in Grimsby on the Saturday and Sunday and there “may well be that there is no dispute” about that.