Huntley had to bathe dog as 'she was a mess', court hears

Ian Huntley has told his trial for the murder of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman that he had run a bath for his dog on the day the girls disappeared.

After the dog, Sadie, had run away from him, he said he “went over the field” in the direction that she had gone.

“She had disappeared from view and I spent most of that afternoon looking for her,” he said.

Huntley explained that his dog returned home, as she had done when she went missing before, at about 6pm.

He said that while searching for Sadie in his car, he stopped to pick up a video: “It would have been between 2 and 3 o’clock, maybe a bit later, I can’t be specific.”

Huntley was asked what sort of condition his dog was in when she returned.

He said: “She was in a real mess. She was very wet, muddy, and she had these sticky things stuck to her fur.”

He was asked if he knew the word “burrs” and whether these were the sticky things to which he referred.

Huntley said he did not know the word.

He was asked what he was going to do with the dog next.

“I was going to bath her,” he said.

Before he did this, he was going to get the worst of the mess off her, he said.

Huntley told the court he had first dried the dog with a hairdryer and then put her in the downstairs toilet.

“Having put Sadie into the downstairs toilet I went upstairs to run a bath,” he said.

He said he kept her in the toilet because if she was left out she would rub against the walls and make a mess, and Maxine would get angry.

Huntley said he then returned downstairs, collected the car keys and went outside to get the dog brush from the boot of his car. He said he took the dog out to clean it.

Mr Coward said: “Whereabouts were you when you got the brush?”

Huntley said: “Kneeling down on the doorstep.”

Mr Coward said eyewitnesses had said in evidence that Huntley said he was washing the dog and asked if this was correct.

Huntley said: “No, I said cleaning. In some cases I did say washing.”

Huntley then said he saw two girls in Manchester United tops approaching.