Exhausted counsellors keep going

After 12 hours of helping the traumatised people of Soham come to terms with the horror of the past few days, Jenny Prudoe needed some counselling of her own,

She and her team of 15 social workers had been in a concrete bunker in Cambridge, working to help the distraught community understand the tragedy.

"People think because you are a counsellor you will be OK," said Mrs Prudoe after coming off duty late last night. "But that is not the case at all: everyone needs to debrief.

"You spend hours concentrating on the people who call. For some of them it has been a challenge to their bravery to call up at all, so you mustn't waste it. It is shattering work, and no matter how trained and experienced you are, you need to talk to someone at the end of it."

The helplines opened at 8am yesterday and the first call came in at two minutes past. Twelve hours and more than 100 harrowing calls later, the lines closed. They opened again at 8am today and will continue as long as needed.

"We have had calls from children as young as 10, the same age as Holly and Jessica, to pensioners," said Mrs Prudoe, 55. "The children ask, 'Why us? Why Soham? Why Holly? Why Jessica?' For reasons I can't explain we have had many more calls from boys than girls. Children say they feel unsafe because they have always been taught to trust adults and now they feel they can't."

Pupils at Soham Village College will collect GCSE results from Soham library, as the school is currently closed and sealed off by police as part of the investigation.

Mrs Prudoe said teachers had called seeking advice on how to talk to children about what happened. And elderly people, who feel isolated and too afraid to leave homes to seek comfort from friends, have called.

Some calls lasted well over an hour, and not all have been local. "We had one from Australia offering help and condolences to the people of Soham," said Mrs Prudoe.