10-year-olds just don't die suddenly - pathologist

Healthy 10-year-old girls “simply don’t die suddenly together”, the murder trial of alleged double murderer Ian Huntley heard today.

The stark assessment came from pathologist Nathaniel Carey who claimed schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman had to have died at the hands of a third party.

But he said their cause of death was “unascertainable” although the most likely was some form of “interference” with the youngsters’ breathing.

The assessment came as a sombre Old Bailey courtroom heard details of how the girls bodies had severely decomposed when they were discovered in a remote ditch.

The grim find came on August 17 last year – 13 days after Holly and Jessica disappeared.

Huntley, 29, denies their murders but his defence team does not dispute they died in his house or that he dumped their bodies in the ditch in Lakenheath, Suffolk.

Dr Carey, who carried out the post mortem examinations, said his official findings were that cause of death was “unascertainable due to decomposition”.

But asked what his best opinion was, he said: “I have come to the conclusion that although it is not possible to give a precise cause of death, that death must have involved the actions of one or more third parties.

“In simple terms, 10-year-old girls simply do not die suddenly together.”

He was then asked what his expert opinion would be having excluded natural causes and other possibles such as stabbing or being attacked with a blunt weapons.

“In broad terms, you are left that the methods of death involved the interference with the mechanics of breathing.”

He described examples such as “classic strangulation” with the hands, compression of the neck using an arm lock or with the use of a ligature.

Under cross examination he accepted drowning could also be included as an example.

He said that beyond compression of the neck, there could also have been some form of “smothering” either with a fabric, a pillow, or the hand over the nose and mouth.

The court heard how Dr Carey visited the deposition site on Sunday August 18 and the bodies were severely decomposed.

He said the state of them was such that it was restricted his investigations.

Based on what he could examine, he could not find evidence on either body of any injuries other than the effects of the decomposition.

Initial identification was carried out from dental records but was later confirmed by DNA.

The front half of the bodies were essentially “gone”. There was skin on the backs but virtually none on the face or neck.

For both bodies the pathologist found no signs of fracturing that could have resulted from a “blunt force”.

He was able to locate the voice box of each girl and was able to retrieve contents from their stomachs.

He also checked each for signs of a sexual assault and found none.

“I was simply unable to confirm or refute the possibility of sexual assault from the physical findings because of the decomposition,” he said.

There was no evidence of skeletal damage or cuts to the bones that may have resulted from being stabbed with a sharp weapon.

But the absence of such evidence did not necessarily mean such an action did not happen, he stressed.

He said the clothes the girls were wearing would have been a better indicator of whether their bodies had been stabbed or “penetrated” by a sharp weapon.

The jury had already been told there was no evidence of puncture marks on the clothing.

Dr Carey said that had there been any “severe blood letting” he would have expected it to be on the shirts.

He agreed with the prosecution that no evidence of blood on the shirts was significant.

For Jessica a sample of head hair was available which he said smelt of an accelerant.

The court has already heard the bodies had been set on fire before they were discovered.

The prosecution claims Huntley returned to the scene days after dumping the bodies to fire them in an attempt to destroy evidence.

Holly’s body was the greater decomposed but he did locate evidence of a small fracture in the back of her skull.

He concluded that was the result the fire and not the result of the stress of an impact.