Carr's lawyer delivers closing speech

The lawyer for Soham accused Maxine Carr began his closing speech at her Old Bailey trial today as the case reached its final stages.

Michael Hubbard QC set out the case for his client, who denies conspiring to pervert the course of justice and two charges of assisting an offender in connection with the deaths of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

Lawyers for the prosecution and for her co-defendant Ian Huntley made their closing speeches yesterday and the trial judge was beginning his summing-up of the case later today.

The jury in the 26-day trial has been told it will be sent out to begin to consider its verdicts tomorrow.

Lawyers for Huntley conceded yesterday that there was evidence that he was guilty of the manslaughter of the youngsters and that he was “worthy of punishment”.

But they said the jury had “waited in vain” for evidence that he was guilty of the double child murder.

And prosecution barrister Richard Latham QC claimed Carr had effectively admitted “all the constituent elements” of the conspiracy charge against her.

He urged the jury to convict her of the more serious charges of assisting Huntley, knowing or believing that he killed the 10-year-old friends.

Huntley, 29, a former caretaker at Soham Village College, denies the double child murder 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 that 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 fiance, giving him a false alibi, but insisted she never suspected he could be involved in the girls’ disappearance.