Killer Huntley's 'nerves of steel'

Ian Huntley murdered Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman then set about covering his tracks in a “ruthless” manner, the jury trying him was told today.

He disposed of the bodies and the evidence “calmly and rationally” then displayed “nerves of steel” when he spoke to journalists covering the search for the girls.

“We make it absolutely clear that we cannot – not – accept his (account of what happened,” said prosecutor Richard Latham QC, in his closing speech in the sixth week of the 25-day trial.

Huntley, 29, a former caretaker at Soham Village College, denies murdering 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 Maxine 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.

Both girls’ parents were in court today to hear Mr Latham say that a central plank of Huntley’s defence was that he was frozen by panic and fear and unable to recollect the details surrounding the deaths of Holly and Jessica.

The barrister said he wanted to examine Huntley’s behaviour after he “comes round” on the landing, with both girls’ bodies just feet away.

He said: “He assembled the two bodies, he makes a decision to remove them from his home, he makes careful precaution before opening the front door that neither body can be seen by anyone who happens to be walking past.

“He makes a decision within minutes of coming round from his little turn that he’s going to burn the bodies.”

Mr Latham said Huntley had retrieved petrol and bin liners from the college so he could burn the bodies without leaving any footprints.

He said Huntley claimed he had driven to Wangford Road and turned on to a track which he claimed never to have driven along or walked on before.

He dumped the bodies in what Mr Latham suggested was “the ideal place”.

The lawyer added: “It’s not just a casual dumping ... it’s a series of ruthless acts at that ditch.”

He said cutting the clothes from the bodies to prevent carpet fibres being found which would link them to Huntley’s home was not the action of a man gripped by panic.

He said: “Is this the mind of a man who has closed down and can’t think rationally, and hasn’t got a proper memory of what has occurred?

“We suggest it is the complete opposite – it is a man under control and he is thinking, thinking very hard indeed.”

Mr Latham said that after disposing of the bodies Huntley embarked on “twelve days of cynical deception”.

“He was playing the part, the role of the helpful caretaker, while at the same time arranging an alibi, cleaning up at home, cleaning up the Fiesta.”

Mr Latham told the jurors: “Imagine you had done something a tenth as bad as he had done and being involved in the deaths of two 10-year-olds – would you have been able to function and describe as he did in the witness box the intimate detail of what he was doing, thinking and talking? He was doing that.”

Mr Latham told the jury: “I put this to you bluntly. He is a capable and convincing liar.

“The jury should bear in mind the media interviews both defendants gave when deciding where the truth lay.

“Note the lies to camera and the ease with which the lies are told.”

He said Carr was cynically relaxed and chatty in her manner “as she lies through her teeth about the important thing – that she was present on the Sunday, which she was not”.

He said perhaps “the utmost cynicism in this whole case” came with Huntley’s media interviews.

“We suggest it takes nerves of steel knowing, and again I put this neutrally, that he was present when Holly died, that he dumped her body and then fired it, and that it was decomposing in the ditch where he left it, as he was engaged in these media interviews.

“He actually sought out Holly’s father, sought him out.”

He repeated Huntley’s words to Kevin Wells: “Kev, I hope everything turns out OK and that the kids return safely home.”

Mr Latham said: “He is cold and calm enough to be able to do that.

“It was, and he has acknowledged, to divert attention away from himself, to behave normally, to be seen to be concerned.

“That was quite ruthless, it was quite deliberate and it was calculating.”

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.

The trial has not sat for the last two days after being adjourned when a woman juror fell ill.