Jurors in Soham trial retire for night

The jury in the Soham murder trial has ended its second day of deliberations without reaching a verdict and has been sent home…

The jury in the Soham murder trial has ended its second day of deliberations without reaching a verdict and has been sent home for the night.

The seven women and five men deliberated for just over five hours on Friday before they were sent home for the weekend.

Trial judge Mr Justice Moses sent them out shortly after 10.30 am today, as the 28-day case reconvened. He called them back shortly before 4.30 this afternoon and sent them home for the night.

Today's deliberations mean the jury has considered the case for about 11 hours in total in the case against Ian Huntley and his ex-girlfriend Maxine Carr .

READ MORE

Mr Ian Huntley (29), a former caretaker at Soham Village College, denies murdering two 10-year-olds, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, on August 4th 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 Ms Maxine Carr (26), a former classroom assistant in the 10-year-olds' 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.