Father screamed for Holly

Ian Huntley claimed he did not think it "necessary" to tell the police he had seen the missing Soham girls the night they disappeared, the Old Bailey heard today.

Sergeant Pauline Nelson said she was "annoyed" to find he had failed to report his sighting until many hours had elapsed into the search.

She described Huntley, accused of murdering the 10-year-olds, as being "very uncomfortable" detailing when and where he had seen Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

Sergeant Nelson, who was in charge of the initial hunt for the girls after they had been reported missing, said she was told about Huntley's information by school teacher Susan Hurrell, who herself had earlier told the court Huntley was "reluctant" to tell police he had seen the schoolgirls and repeatedly "floundered" when asked to detail his sighting.

"He was about eight to 10 feet away from me and I pointed at him and virtually shouted 'You, here' and he came towards me," Sergeant Nelson told the court. "As he got nearer I began to feel more uncomfortable. There were other people around and general background chatter but the moment I began the conversation with him it went very quiet."

Huntley told her he had seen the girls around the sports centre and they had asked after his girlfriend Maxine Carr giving a time of 5.30pm, according to the police officer.

"I asked him why he had not told anybody and he said that he had and waved his arm at the crowd saying he had told them," she added.

"I wanted to know if he had told a police officer and he had not, I asked why and he said he didn't think it was necessary. He didn't seem very comfortable talking to me."

Earlier the court heard how Holly's father called out for her in the darkness during the frantic search in Soham.

Kevin Wells, 40, shouted the names of his daughter and Jessica at the top of his voice as he checked school playing fields five hours after the girls went missing.

Several times during the night Mr Wells encountered Huntley, the Old Bailey was told. Mr Wells shouted out and then waited - "hoping for a response out of the darkness" - but none came.

He was one of numerous searchers who came from their homes and turned out from pubs to search "every nook and cranny of Soham".

People criss-crossed each other all night as a police helicopter flew overhead. Huntley joined the search but as people formed groups talking to each other, he kept away from them, the court heard.

Mr Wells's friend and business partner, Scott Day, told how he drove the father to St Andrew's primary school, which the girls attended, at 11pm on 4 August last year.

"Kevin called across the playing fields for Holly and Jessica as loud as he could possibly call," said Mr Day. "Kevin did that two or three times and waited, hoping for a response out of the darkness."

Both men spotted Huntley walking his dog and saw him again when they went back to the school at about 4.30 the next morning.

Walking past Soham Village College they noticed a light was on and went in through an open door. Huntley's dog came bounding down the corridor followed by the college caretaker. Mr Day said: "Kevin said he was going to have another look around the playing fields and the school and Huntley said he had let the police in and the sniffer dogs had gone around there."

The prosecution alleges Huntley killed the girls on the night they went missing and put their bodies in his car before dumping them in a ditch at Lakenheath, Suffolk, that night. Huntley, 29, denies murdering the girls but has admitted conspiring with girlfriend Maxine Carr to pervert the course of justice by giving a false alibi. Carr, 26, denies the conspiracy charge and pleads not guilty to assisting an offender.

During the search Huntley helped a police dog handler check around Soham Village College. "He was very pleasant and very helpful," said Pc Anna Burton.

The court has heard that burned remains of the girls' clothing, including their Manchester United tops, were eventually found, on 16 August, in a hangar in the college grounds.

The bodies of the girls were found by chance the next day 13 miles away.

Pc Burton said of the night of the search: "When we got to the hangar he didn't have the keys. I thought it was strange but I didn't question him any further."

The officer denied suggestions by Stephen Coward QC, representing Huntley, that the caretaker had offered to go back and fetch the keys to open up the building. A few minutes later retained firemen David Hobbs and Stephen Jarvis came across Huntley standing at his front door, a mug in his hand.

"He wanted to know what was happening and I said two young girls had gone missing," said Mr Jarvis. "He said, 'Did they have red tops on and did one have blonde hair?' I said, 'Yes' and he said he had seen them earlier."

The case continues.