Soham jury returns to consider verdict

The jury at the Old Bailey trial into the deaths of two 10-year-old Soham schoolgirls have returned to court today to consider their verdict.

The jury spent five hours deliberating on Friday afternoon after Mr Justice Alan Moses closed the summing up.

Before dismissing the jury, Mr Justice Moses directed them to decide upon the evidence presented and not to be ruled by emotions, the intense media coverage or be overawed by the gravity of the trial. He also told the jury that they must return a unanimous verdict.

"Unless you are all agreed, there are no verdicts at all," he said.

Ian Huntley, 29, denies murdering Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman on August 4 last year. He has admitted one charge of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

Maxine Carr, 26, Mr Huntley's former girlfriend, denies a charge of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and two charges of assisting an offender.

In his closing arguments on Wednesday, Mr Huntley's defence counsel, Stephen Coward QC, told the jury that there was evidence to show that the defendant had committed an act of manslaughter, but that there was no evidence to show that he had murdered either of the girls.

In his testimony, Mr Huntley claimed that he invited Holly Wells into the house after she suffered a nosebleed. Holly then drowned in the bath after accidentally falling in, he said. Mr Huntley also stated that he had placed a hand over the mouth of Jessica Chapman when she became hysterical and, when he removed it, she was dead.

Mr Huntley also admitted disposing of the girls' clothes and setting fire to their bodies at a ditch in Lakenheath, 13 miles away from Soham. However, Mr Justice Moses told the jury today that such an admission was not evidence of murder.

The judge also said that, while Ms Carr had admitted making misleading statements to police, if they believed that she had done so in the knowledge that her then boyfriend had killed, they should return a verdict of guilty to assisting an offender.

(gmcg)