Soham accused loses temper in witness box

Ian Huntley lost his temper in the witness box at his Old Bailey murder trial today as he was accused of holding Holly Wells under the water and watching her drown in his bath.

Richard Latham QC, prosecuting, suggested Huntley had deliberately lured the 10-year-old and her best friend Jessica Chapman into his home, had wanted to get Holly into his bedroom and had then “wanted her dead”.

He held her under the water, ignoring Jessica’s frenzied screams, and watched her drown before turning his attention to Jessica, the lawyer said.

Mr Latham said: “Holly drowned in the bath because you wanted her dead.”

Huntley: “I did not want her dead.”

Mr Latham: “The only way that child would have drowned in the bath is if you were holding her under the water.”

Huntley: “I was not holding her.”

Mr Latham: “Jessica was screaming because you were murdering Holly, that’s the truth isn’t it?”

Huntley: “No.”

Mr Latham: “That’s the only reason she was screaming rather than helping her friend, isn’t it?”

Huntley: “No that’s not true.”

The witness told how he had tried to “collect his thoughts” and was “frozen by panic” after, he alleges, Holly fell into the water in a series of accidents.

Mr Latham said he did not need to collect his thoughts, and that instinct demanded that he would have tried to rescue Holly, had she fallen in the bath by accident.

Huntley lashed out in response, raising his voice and spitting out the words, saying: “In these circumstances it is very rational to know what you are doing.

“In those circumstances it is not so rational. Believe me, I know.”

In the most highly charged exchanges of the 21-day trial Mr Latham said: “You can be perfectly assertive when you want to Mr Huntley.”

Huntley: “Yes.”

Mr Latham: “You can get angry, can’t you Mr Huntley?”

Huntley: “Yes.”

Mr Latham: “You just lost your temper with me, didn’t you?”

Huntley: “That’s because you … you have your opinion.”

Mr Latham repeated: “You have just lost your temper with me, haven’t you?”

Huntley: “Yes.”

Mr Latham: “Did you lose your temper with one of these girls on that Sunday evening?”

Huntley: “I had no reason to lose my temper.”

Mr Latham: “Did you become the assertive individual you became two minutes ago?”

Huntley: “No I did not.”

The defendant denied all Mr Latham’s suggestions, saying he had not lured the girls into 5 College Close on Sunday August 4 last year, had not wanted to get them into his bedroom and had not held Holly under the water.

He admits the girls died in his house and that he bundled their lifeless bodies into his car and dumped them in the remote ditch near Lakenheath, Suffolk, where they were found 13 days later, but he denies the double child murder.

The 29-year-old former caretaker at Soham Village College has pleaded guilty to a single charge of conspiring to pervert the course of justice.

His girlfriend at the time of the deaths, Maxine Carr, 26, a former teaching assistant at the girls’ primary school, denies the conspiracy charge and two counts of assisting an offender.

The prosecution allege she gave him a false alibi for the day the girls died.