'Smothered and set alight'

Ian Huntley probably smothered and possibly sexually assaulted Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman before dumping their bodies and returning three days later to set them on fire, the Old Bailey heard today.

The night he killed them the school caretaker drove 13 miles from Soham to an area he knew well, it is alleged.

He lay them side by side in a ditch he had chosen carefully because it was entirely hidden by undergrowth off a track in woodland, the court heard. Then, after pestering police officers about the impact of potential DNA evidence, Huntley returned to the scene and set their bodies ablaze, probably using petrol. The grave lay undiscovered in the ditch beside a dirt track close to the air base at Lakenheath, Suffolk, for nearly two weeks.

Scientific evidence of pollen grains and chalky deposits linked Huntley and his car to the area, the court heard.

The girls had disappeared wearing Manchester United shirts. Fibres "precisely" matching the shirts were later found in Huntley's house in Soham, in his car and on his clothes. The girls disappeared from Soham in Cambridgeshire on 4 August last year.

Huntley, 29, denies murdering the two classmates and his girlfriend Maxine Carr, 26, denies plotting to give him a false alibi.

Richard Latham QC, prosecuting, used photographs of the scene to take the court on the route he claimed Huntley had taken with the bodies.

Ferocity of the flames

On giant screens around the courtroom he showed photographs of leaves, branches, banks and undergrowth all scorched by the ferocity of the flames.

Mr Latham reassured the jury they would not be forced to look at pictures of the bodies.

Mr Latham said: "The bodies of the two children were alongside one another.

"Jessica was still wearing her beaded necklace. Holly was still wearing a metal necklace with a love inscription on it."

He said that hairs from Jessica's head had been found on a branch immediately above the bodies.

Mr Latham said: "It is, of course, a significant clue to the precise route down into the ditch."

A pathologist had found it impossible to "exclude sexual assault" on the girls because of the degree of decomposition of the bodies. He could rule out " stabbing, shooting or other significant trauma" and believed that asphyxia was "the most likely" cause of death, the court heard.

Mr Latham said the bodies were "very substantially decomposed". He added: "I tell you that for a number of reasons. You have to know it.

"Had they not been discovered on that Saturday the decomposition was such that they may never have been found.

"They were very, very close to almost having wholly disappeared, apart from the skeletons."

Mr Latham explained that the fire had not been totally destructive. He said the bottom of the bodies lying in the ditch had not been affected by the fire.

Worried about evidence

He said forensic experts said: "The most likely explanation (for the fire) was an intent to disguise them or to destroy forensic evidence."

Fire expert James Howarth examined the scene and estimated damage approximately six feet from the bodies and up to a height of nine feet above them.

Mr Latham said Mr Howarth suggested the pattern was in line with the use of a liquid accelerant, adding: "Petrol would be an obvious example, would it not?"

He added that evidence would suggest that the pattern of fire damage suggested the two bodies were in position before the fire began.

He discussed whether people might think it would be easier to remove the clothes before putting the bodies in the ditch.

He asked the jury to remember the first Wednesday night after the girls' disappearance and Huntley's growing concerns about DNA.

Mr Latham also drew attention to the red petrol can Huntley possessed. A

farmer found the bodies and rang 999. The site was half a mile from a former home of Huntley's father and less than two miles from where his grandmother lived.

Mr Latham said: "Whoever it was who dumped the bodies would not have set off down that track in the dark unless they knew where they were going and what they would find.

Chalk surface

"Whoever dumped the bodies knew it would be a suitable place to hide them and that they were unlikely to be caught in the act. "We suggest Ian Huntley knew that track very well indeed and he was thinking when he set off from Soham, quite clearly and calmly - not in a panic trying to get rid of those bodies as quickly as possible."

After Huntley's arrest tests were done on his clothing, car and house. Chalk traces matching those from the burial scene were found on two pairs of his shoes and the rubber covers of the car pedals.

Mr Latham said there were mounds of chalk in the area where the bodies were found that had built up so that if a car was manoeuvring, the bottom of it would skim the surface of the chalk.

Mr Latham said forensic examination of the Fiesta found traces of the chalk on a suspension arm.

Mr Latham explained to the jury that scientists could distinguish between various types of chalk.

"It turns out that the track is a very unusual geological site."

Pollen grains, some quite rare, were also discovered on his clothing and in the car including the petrol can in the boot, which also matched the remote location.

Damage to nettles in the immediate vicinity allowed a scientist to estimate when the bodies were put there.

Crushed nettles

When crushed, nettles do not die but begin to re-grow. Scientist Patricia Wiltshire took nettle samples and tried to determine the length of time it took them to begin re-growing.

He said her conclusions were that the nettle re-growth period was approximately 13.5 days.

Mr Latham said: "The children went missing on August 4 and their dead bodies were found on the 17th.

"That experiment tends to suggest that the damage to those nettles took place at almost precisely the time these bodies, we suggest, were dumped, namely on the evening of the Sunday."

The Manchester United shirts worn by Holly and Jessica were cut almost exactly in half as they were removed from their bodies.

Cut vertically

The court was shown photographs of the shirts which had been cut vertically from the bottom hem to the neck almost exactly along the centre of the tops.

Pictures of a charred silver bracelet and a half-eaten packet of Polo mints were also shown, which had been among the possessions of the girls found in a bin with the shirts hairs matching those of Huntley.

The court was also shown the fire damaged trainers which had belonged to the two girls - Jessica's were black and Holly's were white with the Nike swoosh logo visible - and underwear. Mr Latham told the jury that Holly's bra had been bought by her mother the day before she disappeared.

The bin was discovered by police during a search of a locked storage building on the Soham Village College site, the keys to which were in Huntley's bedroom.

Huntley's fingerprints were also found on a black plastic bin liner which had been placed inside the bin, concealing the clothes from view.

Huntley, who had complained yesterday of feeling unwell, was not in court and his girlfriend Carr sat alone in the dock today with prison officers.

Mr Latham told the jury the clothing of the girls had been mixed together with two dusters, dishcloth and general debris in the bin.

Turning to Huntley's red Ford Fiesta, Mr Latham said that new carpet which had been placed in the boot had come from off-cuts from Huntley's house.

Red petrol can

The court has heard that Huntley "sanitised" his car, replacing perfectly good tyres and ripping out a fitted carpet in the car boot after the girls had gone missing.

Today he said that the new boot carpet matched carpet installed in Huntley and Carr's home at 5 College Close.

Showing a picture of the boot taken when the car was seized by police, Mr Latham told the jury to note in particular the presence of a large red petrol can and a pair of scissors.

He also said a roll of film was seized during a search of Huntley's house which was found to contain a number of perfectly normal and innocuous photographs.

However there were also some pictures of the Fiesta which, Mr Latham said, showed further steps Huntley had taken to change the appearance of his car.

The photographs were taken in September 2001 and showed an open weave pattern throw over the back seat and headrest on the driver's side.

But when the car was seized in August last year, after the disappearance of the children, neither of these items were present.

Mr Latham said: "We suggest that you should consider that, as the case progresses, as more potential evidence of this car being cleaned up.

The case continues.