Soham girls 'likely to have been asphyxiated'

Asphyxia was the "most likely cause" of the deaths of murdered schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, the Old Bailey heard today.

The girls' bodies were set on fire in the overgrown ditch in which they were dumped, the court - which is trying Ian Huntley for the murders - was told.

Mr Huntley, 29, denies murdering the girls, who disappeared from their home town of Soham, Cambridgeshire, on August 4 last year.

The bodies of the 10-year-olds were discovered 13 days later near Lakenheath, in Suffolk.

The prosecution said that a police officer arriving at the scene had seen an area of scorched shrubbery around the bodies.

A pathologist, Dr Carey, who carried out post-mortem examinations on the girls, said that it was not possible to "exclude sexual assault" because of the degree of decomposition of the bodies, prosecutor Richard Latham QC told the court.

"He excluded stabbing, shooting or other significant trauma," Mr Latham said.

"A definite cause of death was impossible to determine, but asphyxia was the "most likely cause," he added, saying that there was "no evidence of poisoning or the administration of drugs".

He said that there was no evidence of skeletal injury such as broken bones or other major bodily trauma.

Dr Carey had said that the bodies were likely to have been placed in the ditch soon after their disappearance, before rigor mortis had set in, the court was told.

Mr Latham said: "The bodies of the two children were alongside one another. The nearer body was found to be Jessica, and the further body Holly.

"Jessica was still wearing her bead necklace. Holly had her metal necklace with a 'love' inscription.

"Some human head hairs were discovered attached to a branch immediately above the bodies. Those have been examined and found to match Jessica's.

"It gives a significant clue to the route down to the ditch. Those hairs snagged on the branch as the body went down into the ditch."

Mr Latham said that he would not show the jury pictures of the bodies.

"They were covered in maggots and substantially decomposed," he told the court. "Had they not been discovered on the Saturday, decomposition was such that they may never have been found.

"They were very close to having wholly disappeared, apart from the skeletons," he told the court.

Mr Latham suggested that anyone in a blind panic could have found plenty of places nearer than that area "where you can dump bodies".

"You will consider just how clever is the place they were left," he told the court. "There was a substantial possibility that they would never be found."

He said that part of a pocket and other small pieces of fabric were discovered, and fitted with some of the clothes found in a hangar in the grounds of Soham Village College, where Mr Huntley had worked.

Earlier, Mr Latham explained that the ditch ran along one side of a track, with a field on the other side. The ditch would often fill up with water.

He said that the land's farmer, Brian Rutterford, had created a rudimentary sluice gate. Using boards that could be fitted or removed depending on the level of water required, it allowed water to be drained from the ditch and into the field.

Mr Latham told the court that, on Tuesday August 13, Mr Rutterford had removed two to three of the boards in the sluice gate because water had built up in the ditch.

He wanted to harvest some crops, and therefore needed to drain some of the water.

Mr Latham said: "This would have caused the ditch where the bodies were later discovered to dry out."

The prosecutor said that, on Saturday August 17 - within hours of the arrests of Mr Huntley and his former girlfriend, Maxine Carr, 26 - three people met in the area.

They were Adrian Lawrence, Helen Sawyer and Keith Prior, the local gamekeeper.

Mr Latham said: "They came across the smell of rotting flesh, and soon found the bodies of Holly and Jessica in the ditch."

The court was told that they made a 999 call. The area was cordoned off, and an examination got under way. Mr Latham said that none of the trio had gone down into the ditch, and had not disturbed any of the vegetation.

Earlier, the jury had been shown the remains of the schoolgirls' clothing, and heard how Mr Huntley and Ms Carr were arrested.

Yesterday, the jury was told that an attempt had been made to set fire to all the clothing where it was dumped in a bin in a hangar building at the college, where Mr Huntley had been caretaker.

Today, the jury saw pictures of items of burnt clothing discovered in the bin, including a bra which Holly's mother had bought her on the day before she died. Other items of burnt underwear were pictured, along with scorched training shoes.

The court has already heard that some of Mr Huntley's hairs were found in the bin.

Mr Latham said that the red Manchester United shirts worn by the girls were cut almost exactly in half as they were removed from their bodies.

The jury was shown photographs of the shirts. Jessica's showed signs of slight burn marks. Both were cut vertically from the bottom hem to the neck, almost exactly along the centre.

The jury also saw photographs of the carpet in the boot of Mr Huntley's car. Mr Latham drew their attention to other items seen in the picture, including a red petrol can and a large pair of scissors.

The court then heard how the car's seat covers had been removed. It has already heard how Mr Huntley had tried to "sanitise" the car after the girls' disappearance.

Mr Latham then turned to the day that Mr Huntley and Ms Carr were arrested.

He said: "Once police had the opportunity to appreciate what they had found in the bin, a decision was made to arrest both Huntley and Carr in the early hours of the morning [August 17].

"They were not together at the time, but were arrested within minutes of each other shortly before 4.30. Within hours of the arrest, quite coincidentally, the bodies were found."

Mr Huntley denies murder. However, the court has heard that he is likely to accept that he was alone with them in his house when they died, and that he disposed of their bodies.

He has admitted a single charge of conspiring to pervert the course of justice.

Ms Carr, a former classroom assistant at the girls' school, denies conspiring with Mr Huntley to pervert the course of justice and two charges of assisting an offender.

Mr Huntley was not in the dock today.

Trial judge Mr Justice Moses explained to the jury yesterday that he had left the dock in the afternoon because he was feeling unwell.

Nothing more was said today about his absence from the dock, where Ms Carr sat alone.

The trial continues.