BRITAIN: Mr Ian Huntley murdered schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman after something went wrong when he initiated a sexual encounter with one or both girls, his trial at the Old Bailey in London was told yesterday.
Prosecutor Mr Richard Latham told the jury in his summing up that the school caretaker killed the girls when he lost his temper, to stop them giving evidence.
Responding, defence counsel Mr Stephen Coward conceded Mr Huntley was guilty of manslaughter but not of murder and said he was "clearly worthy of punishment". Mr Huntley (29), denies murdering either girl but has admitted Holly died by drowning in his bathtub and that Jessica died when he covered her mouth with his hand to stop her screaming. He says both deaths were accidents.
Earlier in the trial, scientists said there was no forensic evidence to suggest the girls had been sexually assaulted although they said that could have been due to the condition of the charred bodies.
"We suggest the whole business in the house was motivated by something sexual, whether initiated with one or other or both girls - something went wrong," Mr Latham told the jury.
"Therefore, in this ruthless man's mind, both girls simply had to die, had to die in his own selfish self-interest because each was a witness, a potential complainant and he was quite merciless." Mr Coward told the jury to forget that the girls were "beautiful, charming and happy" and to reject the intense pressure to convict Mr Huntley and "throw away the key".
"We have four deeply distressed parents, two girls who were alive and happy and are now dead," Mr Coward said. "Understandably that puts great pressures on everyone involved."
He said the jury should ignore the media coverage which appeared "day after day after day" and urged them to resist the public pressure which he described as "baying at the door".
Mr Coward told the jury that if Mr Huntley's version was true then he was presented with a "mind blowing situation" which explained why he lied.
However, Mr Latham described Mr Huntley's version of events as "untenable".
"Holly drowns with both Jessica and Huntley just an arm's grasp away? It would have been instinctive for both of them to have done something," he said.
Mr Huntley has admitted dumping the girls' bodies at a secluded spot about 15 miles from their village of Soham, Cambridgeshire, cutting their clothes off and burning the bodies. His former girlfriend, Ms Maxine Carr (26), faces charges of assisting an offender and conspiring to pervert the course of justice.
The prosecution said Ms Carr had decided to lie for her boyfriend for purely selfish reasons.
"She had the prospects of marriage, the prospects of a baby, the prospects of a nice home and a new start in life and indeed then prospects of new employment as a child minder," Mr Latham said. "Unpleasant as it is, that was her motive [to lie\]." The jury, which has been sitting for the past six weeks, was also to hear a closing speech from the judge, Justice Alan Moses, before retiring to consider its verdict, probably on Friday. - (Reuters)