Huntley 'changed car tyres to fool police'

Soham accused Ian Huntley made a “major attempt” to sanitise his car in the days after the disappearance of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, the Old Bailey heard today.

The actions of Huntley, who denies the schoolgirls’ murders, showed a man “who is thinking calmly and carefully and is calculating his way forward”, the prosecution at the Old Bailey trial said.

Richard Latham QC, prosecuting, claimed the moves included removing an existing boot carpet, changing its tyres and cleaning the Ford Fiesta while others were out searching for the girls.

Mr Latham said the details of the car, if proved, would be a “most important aspect of the prosecution case”.

The Ford Fiesta was bought by Huntley around July 2001, the court heard.

A garage inspection revealed the tyres had between one and three millimetres of tread depth.

On August 5, 2001, the car was taken into a Kwik Fit in Scunthorpe where four Centaur tyres with a minimum tread of seven millimetres were fitted.

An MOT at a garage in Ely on July 10, 2002, – 24 days before the girls’ disappearance – showed the car had done around 10,000 miles in the last 12 months and the tyres had lost only between one and two millimetres of tread.

The court heard that on Monday August 5 – the day after the girls’ disappearance – four new Sava Effecta tyres were fitted to a red Ford Fiesta at a garage in Ely.

The registration was different to Huntley’s car but Mr Latham revealed: “The man who turned up asked for a different registration number to be put on the paperwork and slipped £10 to the mechanic in order for that to be achieved.”

He added: “More particularly, one of the mechanics noticed the tyres coming off were in surprisingly good condition, with four to six millimetres of tread depth.”

The court also heard that a phone call to Huntley’s mobile around 3.16pm put the signal in Ely, just 20 minutes before the invoice for the tyres was issued.

Mr Latham said the prosecution believes Huntley had the new tyres fitted and raised the point that tyres driven on soft ground would leave marks.

He told the court that if you had a “guilty conscience” and do not want your tyre tracks to be traced, “you may be prepared to spend a lot of money” to get a new set of tyres.

“That’s if you are guilty,” he said.

He said the only person who could change his tyres with confidence to exclude his own treadmarks “was the person who knew the type of treadmark at the scene”.

“That’s the person who went there with the bodies,” Mr Latham told the court.

“We suggest you will have little difficulty concluding that it was Huntley who went to Ely and changed the tyres.

“What was the purpose of fitting those tyres?”

Mr Latham said there was a bundle of documentation and receipts for the car in Huntley’s home but the receipt for the most recent tyre purchase was not there.

“He wouldn’t want anyone to ever discover what he had done to that car,” Mr Latham added.

“We suggest it reveals a person who is aware of potential police forensic examination and a person who is prepared to take any step he can to destroy evidence.

“We ask a simple question: does an innocent man need to destroy evidence, even before the bodies were found?”

He said that there were two very important questions to be considered in relation to the tyres.

“Firstly, we say it’s the reaction of a guilty man. Only a person who had done something wrong would change the tyres.

“Secondly, perhaps more importantly in the context of what we know now… it shows a man who is thinking calmly and carefully and is calculating his way forward.”

Later on that Monday evening, when people were out searching for the missing girls, Huntley was seen washing his car.

Many people thought this was “insensitive” but the prosecution suggested there was a more “sinister” motive.

Huntley was cleaning the boot area of the car and one witness saw a professionally fitted boot carpet hanging over the vehicle, the court heard.

Mr Latham said that when Huntley bought the car it had a professionally fitted carpet.

But when the car was seized by police later, it had another piece of domestic carpet that had been cut to fit inside.

All the car doors were also open and the mats out.

“We say that there was in progress on Monday a major attempt to sanitise the Fiesta,” Mr Latham said.

The next day Huntley drove the Fiesta to Grimsby to collect Carr.

A witness, a neighbour of Carr’s mother, saw the pair standing near the car.

Describing what the neighbour saw, Mr Latham said: “The car boot was open and both of them appeared to be looking into it.

“Maxine was sobbing and Ian just looked really thin and pale.

“As she opened her gate it made a noise and they both looked round and at her.

“Ian closed the boot. Maxine put her head down and continued to cry.”

Mr Latham added: “Members of the jury, remember this: the appearance of the Ford Fiesta had been transformed and we are going to suggest there was a significant transformation in the boot.

“What had been in the boot which had suddenly necessitated a new carpet?”