'Huntley: The girls are dead'

Ian Huntley: denies murder

Three days after Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman disappeared Ian Huntley told a visitor to Soham Village College that the girls were dead.

Salesman Martin Mahoney was walking with Huntley across the college car park packed with television vans as the search for the girls was in full swing.

It was the Wednesday after they vanished on Sunday 4 August last year - 10 days before their bodies were found.

Mr Mahoney said: "I said, 'This is an awful business, a dreadful business' or something like that. 'I suppose they will find them.' He just replied, 'No, they will be dead'."

Mr Mahoney told the court: "I have three daughters of my own and I said that if one of my daughters was missing, 'You don't give up after a couple of days'.

"He just said, 'They are dead'."

Mr Mahoney said he was positive Huntley had said the words "they are dead" and denied suggestions from the caretaker's counsel, Stephen Coward, QC, that all that was said was "as time goes on you start fearing the worst".

He told the jury he had been invited by Huntley to have a cup of coffee at his home.

He noticed that the caretaker had bags under his eyes. "I said, 'You look awful'," said Mr Mahoney. Huntley said he had been up for 24 hours keeping the media vans plugged in and keeping an eye on the school."

Sitting with Huntley's girlfriend Maxine Carr in their lounge Mr Mahoney said to her: "This is a bloody sad affair."

He added: "With that she handed me off the mantelpiece or shelf a card which children of that age draw of two people looking like stick people and saying something like, 'We love you' or 'We miss you so much' or something like that."

He said Carr told him words to the effect of: "Look at the card they sent me last week. It came through the letter box on Saturday or Sunday night."

Almost immediately a policeman arrived and went upstairs while Huntley went outside. Carr told Mr Mahoney: "That is the second time they have been upstairs."

Huntley, 29, denies murdering the 10-year-olds but has admitted conspiring with Carr to pervert the course of justice by supplying police with a false alibi.

Carr, 26, pleads not guilty to conspiracy and to two counts of assisting offender.

Earlier the court heard that Huntley made a nuisance of himself trying to find out the latest information in the hunt for the girls. BBC producer Tom Fredericks said Huntley asked him several times about aspects of the case.

Mr Fredericks said: "He was becoming a nuisance by now. It appeared that he was trying to see into the editing van which we don't like."

Special constable Sarah Lee told the jury that Huntley had diverted her and a colleague away from the hangar where the charred remnants of Holly and Jessica's Manchester United shirts were later found.

She said Huntley had shouted "excuse me, excuse me" very loudly behind her which made her jump. After asking what she was doing Huntley offered to show her a way out from the college grounds.

The court heard that this route took the officer away from the hangar.

Pc Clive Cooper told the court that Huntley had fetched some maps of the college grounds for the police search party which he had found helpful and the caretaker had told him: "I hope you find the girls."

The case continues.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in