'I did not invent defence'

Ian Huntley today admitted telling "bare-faced lies" about the fate of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

And he agreed it was inexcusable to tell Holly's father that he hoped she would return home safely three days after the girl died in his bathroom.

The Soham caretaker was accused at the Old Bailey of "playing with the emotions" of Kevin Wells - knowing that the 10-year-olds had died at his hands but pretending there was still hope.

Mr Wells and Jessica's parents Les and Sharon Chapman watched as Huntley was accused of lying to police and in media interviews to protect himself.

Prosecuting QC Richard Latham confronted Huntley with transcripts of TV interviews following the girls' disappearance but before his arrest.

"You stood in front of the cameras and interviewers and told them bare-faced lies," said Mr Latham.

"I didn't want to do these interviews," Huntley replied. Mr Latham reminded Huntley that he had claimed yesterday that he had promised his own parents that he wanted to get through to this trial to tell the girls' parents the truth.

Huntley: "That's correct." Latham: "All your efforts have been designed to help their parents have they?"

Huntley: "Not entirely." Latham: "All your efforts have been designed to help you, haven't they?"

Huntley: "Pardon?" Latham: "Because from the start to finish in this case you have been looking after yourself."

Huntley: "Not entirely." Latham: "You don't care what impact you have on anybody else."

Huntley: "That's not true." Mr Latham referred to an interview Huntley gave to the BBC six days after Holly and Jessica went missing on Sunday 4 August last year.

In it Huntley said that his account of seeing the girls walk away from his house had been confirmed "as an accurate sighting" by the police and he had done everything to help them.

Latham: "That's a lie, isn't it?"

Huntley: "Yes." Latham: "Because far from helping them what you had done was designed to confuse?"

Huntley: "It was not designed to confuse, it was just a lie."

Latham: "To put police off the scent."

Huntley: "That's correct." Mr Latham then referred to Huntley's comments on TV that he had sought out Mr Wells - referring to him as "Kev" - to tell him that "he hopes everything turns out okay and the kids return safely".

Mr Latham added: "You had a chat with 'Kev' when you said you hoped everything turns out okay - but for who?"

Huntley: "It's just what I said."

Latham: "It was inexcusable."

Huntley: "Yes." Latham: "It was to try to portray an image to benefit you."

Huntley: "Yes." Latham: "You were playing with the emotions of that parent solely in order to benefit your own position."

Huntley: "I was not intentionally playing with anybody's emotions."

The QC referred to Huntley telling the TV interviewer that it was "very upsetting" to think that he was "the last friendly face" the girls had seen.

Latham: "You said that?" Huntley: "Yes." Latham: "Did you regard yourself, now the memories come rushing back, as a friendly face in relation to these two girls?"

Huntley: "I was a friendly face, yes."

Mr Latham went on to emphasise that Huntley had actively sought out Mr Wells rather than accidentally bumping into him. "I wanted to say sorry to him," said Huntley.

In his last interview before he was arrested Huntley had told a TV reporter that he was " gutted" like everyone else in Soham.

Latham: " Gutted about what?"

Huntley: "Basically I was gutted about what happened, about

what nobody knew about."

Latham: "You were gutted to be responsible for the deaths of two girls."

Huntley: "I'm not sure if that was what I meant."

Latham: "You were pretending, weren't you?"

Huntley: "I was very aware of the lies I told."

Latham: "It was a bare-faced lie, as was the entire fortnight (between the girls' deaths and his arrest)".

Huntley: "Some of it was."

Latham: "All of it was. Everybody you spoke to, you told a lie."

Mr Latham pointed out that Huntley had said in his TV interview that he was trying to cope with the disappearance of the girls but while there was a "glimmer of hope", everybody was trying to cling to it.

Huntley: "I was expressing the views of all the people that I had been speaking to about this."

Latham: "You said you were going along with that, you still had hope? These are words uttered by you, the person who had dumped these two bodies in the ditch. You knew when you said that didn't you?"

Huntley: "Yes I did." Latham: "Yet you stood and faced the cameras and the interviewers and told barefaced lies."

Huntley, 29, denies murdering Holly and Jessica. He claims they died accidentally in his bathroom as he tried to stem Holly's nosebleed. He has admitted conspiring with his girlfriend Maxine Carr to pervert the course of justice by giving police a false alibi.

Carr, 26, denies the conspiracy and has pleaded not guilty to two charges of assisting an offender.

In the months after his arrest Huntley was accused of "keeping his powder dry" as he worked out his response to the prosecution case.

Mr Latham took Huntley through a secretly taped conversation with his mother at Woodhill Prison in which Huntley claimed that the girls were alive when they left his house and that he might have been framed by someone who had followed the girls.

Mr Latham said the account Huntley was working out was being created in response to papers served on him and his lawyers by the prosecution.

"You were working out how you would lie your way round the prosecution case," he said. "No I wasn't," said Huntley.

Mr Latham asked him whether it was a case of "false memory syndrome" when he remembered seeing the girls leaving his house alive.

"The psychiatrist told me that was a coping mechanism," said Huntley.

He added: "Some of the things I was seeing was what I wanted to see. Things kept changing."

Huntley denied inventing a "clever" defence to fit the facts as they emerged.

The trial continues.