Soham trial resumes with closing speeches

The Soham trial resumed today as the prosecution summed up its case against Ian Huntley and Maxine Carr at the Old Bailey.

The double murder trial into the deaths of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman has not sat for the last two days after being adjourned when a woman juror fell ill.

But proceedings continued in the historic Number One Court today as the full panel of seven women and five men returned and the case entered its final stages.

Richard Latham QC, for the prosecution, began his closing speech in the sixth week of the 25-day trial and will be followed by the lawyers for both defendants.

The jury was told it would retire to consider its verdicts by the end of this week, once the judge had given his summing-up, although that timing may now change.

In the closing phase of the evidence last week, Huntley spent two and a half days in the witness box followed by almost eight hours of evidence from Carr.

Huntley, 29, a former caretaker at Soham Village College, denies the double child murder of the 10-year-olds on Sunday August 4 last year but has admitted a single charge of conspiring to pervert the course of justice.

The jury has heard he admits Holly died accidentally in his bath and he killed Jessica as he tried to silence her screams, although he insists he did not mean to kill her.

He bundled their bodies into his car, dumped them in the remote ditch where they were found 13 days later, cut off their clothes and torched their corpses.

His ex-girlfriend Carr, 26, a former classroom assistant in the youngsters’ class, denies conspiring to pervert the course of justice and two counts of assisting an offender.

She has told the jury that she lied to protect her then fiancé, giving him a false alibi, but insisted she never suspected he could be involved in the girls’ disappearance.