My case
concluded with Ian Huntley being charged with the murder of Jessica and holly,
Maxine Carr was also charged for helping in the abduction of the girls and
luring them to Huntley. Despite Ian Huntleys attempts to destroy forensic evidence,
there was still a great amount of forensic evidence which linked him to the
murder. It took 5 days of deliberation for the jury to reject Huntleys claims
that the girls had accidently died and on December 17th 2003 he was
charged with their murder.
From the
moment the girls went missing there were no instant suspects. They did routine
checks of everyone’s houses around the area but found nothing. When the search
started for the girls, everyone from the community began helping and looking.
Huntley immediately began searching for the girls and also appearing on news
shows doing interviews etc., he was very involved within the media. This is
when detectives got a bit suspicious about his huge involvement as its unusual
for someone who is just the caretaker of the school to become so involved, also
from his body language in the interviews sparked the detectives to pin him as a
suspect. The detectives then began to investigate into Huntley, this is where
they found police had already had 10 previous contacts with Huntley for sexual
assault claims and a burglary, which had never made it to court or been put on
his register apart from the burglary. He had been charged with raping a teenager, a charge that
was later dropped. He was also accused of indecently assaulting an 11-year-old
and having sex with a string of other schoolgirls, he slipped through the net
and changed his name to Ian Nixon and changed location where he managed to get
a job as a caretaker at the school the girls attended. Carr who also worked at
the school as a teacher fell in love with Huntley and they began a relationship
which at first seemed normal, however they were having an affair. Carr was also
involved in interviews in the news for the missing girls but from her
body
language gave away clues she was involved, carr referred to the girls as past
tense in her interview which the journalist later realised and asked her to rephrase
her answer.. She taught the girls so had a friendship with them. Detectives
found that she had managed to lure the girls to Ian Huntleys house although she
didn’t realise he was going to kill them. He later killed the girls then took
their bodies to near where his father lives and dumped their bodies. The first main piece of evidence was Huntley
in the news reports, police were able to get body language specialists to
examine this and knew that he was telling lies. The strength of this was that
this showed that Huntley wasn’t telling the truth which sparked an
investigation into him where they were able to find vital clues to link him to
the murder. A weakness of this was that it couldn’t really be used as evidence
however it leaded to evidence being found. Witnesses where spoke to who saw the
girls in the red man united shirts could pinpoint exactly what time they were
seem on Sunday the 4th of august. Strength of this was that they
could investigate what Huntley was doing at exactly that time and also
investigate the area in which they were found. A weakness of this was that
Huntley wasn’t questioned straight away after witnesses said this and he was
able to help with the search which gave him time to destroy evidence. Mobile phone
records show that Jessica’s phone sent its final signal at 18:46pm before it
disconnected from its network, the signal linked Jessica or at least her
handset to Huntleys house. When Huntley was questioned about this she said that
the girls died in the bathroom where he was helping Holly with a nosebleed. He said
he accidently knocked her into the bath and they smothered Jessica because she
was screaming. A strength of this was that it confirmed that the girls where in
Huntleys house and that they were also dead, however a weakness was that
evidence had been destroyed to prove this but a pathologist said that the
bathroom was too small for holly to have fallen into the bath unless someone
had lifted her legs over the side. This was a strength to the case because it
proved that Huntley was lying. Another piece of evidence that was found
Huntleys red ford fiesta car.
Huntley had attempted to sanitise thoroughly of
his car washing and vacuuming it. He ripped out the lining of the boot and
replaced it with domestic carpet, he also got rid of the throw that had been
covering the back seat. A mechanic in Ely testifies that he had replaced all
four of Huntleys tyres on Monday the 5th of August 2007 despite them
still having 4mm-5mm of tread left. A forensic examination of the underside of
the car found traces of chalk, brick dust and concrete. This unusual
combination matched the surface of the track where the girl’s bodies were
found. Pollen samples also linked the car to the site. An advantage of all this
evidence was that it was strong evidence that linked Huntley to the crime scene
of the girl’s bodies. A weakness of this was that Huntley had done a major
attempt to destroy evidence so a lot of evidence wasn’t valid. The girl’s
bodies were found in a ditch in a remote spot near Lakenheath airbase on the 17th
of august 2002, almost 2 weeks after they went missing. A botanist examined the
nettles in the ditch and determined that they had been disturbed 13 and a half
days previously which was a strength as that showed that it was around the day
that the girls went missing that the nettles where disturbed which shows that Huntley
had been present as that ditch. A weakness was that it didn’t show that it was Huntley
that disturbed the nettles only that the nettles had been disturbed. The leaves
of the trees above where singed and the bodies had been partly burned. A total
of 64 different types of pollen where taken at the site and several matched
pollen found on Huntleys shoes, the pedals and foot-well of his car and a red
petrol can. Huntley knew the area well. He used to go train spotting there and
his grandma lives in Lakenheath. His father also had a house half a mile from
where the bodies were found. A major advantage of this was that it linked
Huntley to the area of where the girls were found and also because he knew the
area well meant that he has been several times and is almost a sentimental
place to him so links him to the area. The biggest piece of evidence found was
the bin which contained holly and Jessica’s red Manchester united tops and
other clothes, they were found cut and burnt in the bin in an outbuilding of
soham Village
College. Police discovered them after finding a set of keys in
Huntleys home which he had previously denied having. Two of Huntleys hairs
where found in with the clothes and his fingerprints where on a bin bag which
had been placed on top. 49 tiny fibres matching the girl’s shirts were found on
Huntleys clothes and around his house. Fibres from Huntleys carpet and curtains
were also found on the t-shirts establishing a two-way link between the clothes
and Huntleys home. The bin was a huge advantage to the case as there was so
much forensic evidence gathered from this such as fingerprints and fibres which
linked Huntley directly to the murder. All this evidence that was found led to
Huntley and their predictions that Carr had lured the girls to Huntleys house
where he killed them and dumped their bodies then tried to destroy evidence.
I 100% agree with the conclusion made towards the soham
murders and agree that they reached the correct verdict. However I recommend
that Huntley should have been previously investigated as he had so many previous
claims about previous rapes with underage girls etc. and if this had been
investigated Huntley would be in prison and wouldn’t have been able to commit
the murder against Holly and Jessica so I believe that police made a huge
mistake regarding Huntley and his previous claims. But because of his previous
crimes this then adds towards the evidence had he murdered Jessica and holly
because he had so many previous claims about raping underage girls. The evidence
towards Huntley was so great although he had tried to destroy a great deal of
it, there was still so much chemical, physical an biological evidence pointing towards
him such as the fingerprints and fibres, also the fact that Huntley knew
Lakenheath well and dumped the girls there, the fact that Jessica’s phone signal
proved they had been in Huntleys house and also Huntleys involvement in the
search for the girls and the interviews he gave just proves that Huntley was
the murderer, however if they had investigated Huntley earlier then he would of
never had the chance to murder the young girls.
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