Huntley 'hid girls' clothes'

Every item of clothing worn by Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman was cut from their bodies and dumped in a waste bin, the Old Bailey heard this afternoon.

The clothes, "right down to their underwear," were found in a bin bag in a school building yards from caretaker Ian Huntley's home. The building was kept locked and he had the keys.

Richard Latham, QC, said attempts had also been made to burn the evidence. A photograph of the clothing, showing the remains of the two Manchester United shirts the girls were wearing on the day they vanished in Soham, was shown to the jury.

The discovery was made by police searching the building 12 days after the girls disappeared and the day before their bodies were found 15 miles away.

By this stage Huntley and his girlfriend Maxine Carr's home was being searched by police while they were being put up at a hotel. In a bedroom they found keys which unlocked the building and at 11pm police began to search it.

The jury was shown a dramatic reconstruction of how an officer first pulled out a knotted black rubbish bag from a school refuse bin, then a plastic bin liner under which the crucial half-burned clothing was found.

The jury was told that Huntley's fingerprints were on the inside of the bin bag.

Earlier TV film of Huntley saying he was the "last friendly face" seen by Holly and Jessica was played at the Old Bailey. Footage of the caretaker being interviewed was played on four large video screens for the jury.

He describes to a news crew his account of the last time he saw the girls alive. He claims he saw them walking towards the bridge in the centre of Soham as if they "didn't have a care in the world".

Asked how he feels about being the last to have seen the girls he says: "It is very hard. I just wish I had done something more."

But it was all lies, said Mr Latham. By that time the girls were already dead - murdered by Huntley and buried in secret graves, it is claimed. Huntley, who now admits the girls died in his house but denies murder, says in the film: "I'm very upset to think that I might have been the last friendly face these two girls had spoken to before something happened."

The interview was recorded for the BBC six days into the manhunt and a week before the girls' bodies were found.

In the film Huntley describes how he comforted Holly's heartbroken father Kevin telling him: "I hope everything turns out right and the kids return home safely." Huntley gave a succession of interviews to the media about his concerns for the girls.