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Ian Huntley recall the 'errors' made by the killer that led to his conviction — Transcript

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0:00murdered in cold blood two schoolgirls
0:03and one of Britain's biggest ever man
0:06I've investigated dozens of murders this
0:10one is different
0:12this one hiding in plain sight the
0:16killer we have an eyewitness in huntly
0:20here's a familiar figure a man who
0:22thought he could hoodwink the police
0:24lost funny face that his two girls speak
0:29to the media somebody would have seen or
0:33heard something if somebody had tried to
0:35get those girls into a car and the
0:36entire country I didn't say anything
0:39untoward nobody were hanging around I
0:41was unbeknown to me talking to a
0:44murderer tonight
0:46the man who put that murderer behind
0:48bars gives his only television interview
0:50since Ian Huntley went on trial how's
0:53the perfect car never been committed
0:54I doubt you and the woman whose chance
0:56conversations sent Huntley back to cover
0:59his tracks talks on TV for the first
1:01time ever alarm bells rang as soon as I
1:04started talking to him we reveal the
1:06five mistakes that caught one of
1:08Britain's most notorious killers
1:12and put him in prison for life
1:16while making those mistakes convicted
1:18himself
1:21[Music]
1:31the felons of East Anglia peaceful
1:35unchanging and rarely in the news but in
1:40the summer of 2002 they became the scene
1:42of one of Britain's most notorious
1:44crimes
1:45I was the evening news presenter at Sky
1:50News and I was sent to some to cover
1:53what turned out to be one of the biggest
1:55murder stories of the decade it was a
1:59stifling sweltering August where the air
2:04didn't move and the news agenda didn't
2:06move much either so when this story
2:10emerged of two pretty little girls going
2:12missing just vanishing into thin air in
2:16a small tight-knit rural community
2:19people found the story compelling almost
2:22from the very start always the fourth in
2:25the market town of soem four minutes
2:29past five and a photo captures the
2:31beaming smiles of Holly Wales and
2:33Jessica Chapman
2:36Jessica on the right had come to Holly's
2:39house for a family barbecue
2:40both girls then went upstairs to play on
2:43a computer within two hours they
2:45disappeared
2:47[Music]
2:56to check it all girls should vanish
2:59without trace is as disturbing as it is
3:02mysterious the girls walked out of the
3:05house sometime after 6:15 without
3:08telling Holly's parents
3:12at 6:28 CCTV captured them going across
3:15the car park of a Sports Center possibly
3:18on their way to buy sweets
3:21then they walked along a path towards
3:23the local high school so and village
3:25college after that they passed college
3:30close at 6:33 they were seen a
3:33neighboring College Road before
3:36vanishing have they been in an accident
3:43had they lost their way had they been
3:46abducted that is what was unfolding as I
3:50headed off to serve that August day with
3:55every hour that passes fears for their
3:57safety grow other reporters were also
4:01heading to soem from Britain and all
4:04over the world as they wrote and
4:07broadcast their stories the search
4:09parties became ever larger
4:11the whole town it seemed turned out in
4:14response but among the detectives
4:17leading the investigation the sense of
4:20unease was growing I helped write the
4:25world's first police manual on how to
4:28investigate murder and I was invited by
4:31Cambridgeshire police to advise them on
4:32this case it was getting more and more
4:35likely that we weren't going to find
4:36these girls alive but at the same time
4:39you don't want to take away the hope of
4:42the parents from a personal point of
4:45view it I found that difficult the
4:47parents were really lovely people this
4:52afternoon both Hollies and Jessica's
4:54parents join the police in making a
4:56desperate appeal for help they both be
5:06frightened it was very hard not to get
5:25emotionally drawn into this story
5:27because you could see palpably tangibly
5:31the the suffering that they were going
5:34through
5:36particularly those of us who were
5:38parents grandparents a couple of years
5:41fallout up by that first granddaughter
5:44them and I thought well if something
5:46happens if she disappear how would I
5:48feel
5:52we've had an experienced friends and
5:55family searching ditches in rivers
6:03looking for shadowed grapes
6:05our children the media coverage
6:13intensified when the police released
6:15this image four days into the hunt those
6:20pictures of Holly and Jessica and their
6:22red mansions united shirts were on every
6:26front page every news bulletin and it
6:29was an image that I think haunted the
6:33British public then a newspaper appealed
6:37for information leading to the girls
6:38safe recovery the reward 1 million
6:43pounds shortly afterwards
6:45David Beckham whose name was on the back
6:47of both their shirts made his own plea
6:50for them to return home he got in
6:53trouble he said your parents love you
6:55and they want you back
6:58but 13 days after the girls went missing
7:01the appeals came to an abrupt end
7:06[Music]
7:09it was the news the nation had been
7:12dreading the discovery of two bodies by
7:14a member of the public at lunchtime
7:16today in thick woodland next to the RAF
7:19base and Lakenheath the police had a
7:26prime suspect
7:28Ian Huntley the caretaker at soem
7:31village college he'd given a series of
7:34interviews claiming he'd spoken to the
7:36girl shortly before they disappeared
7:39Chaston weather's going on anything
7:42which might stops all this from
7:44happening but while he buffed in the
7:47media spotlight
7:48he also harbored a horrific secret
7:50Huntley himself was responsible for
7:53killing Holly and Jessica luring them
7:56into his house just yards from where
7:58they were last seen then murdering them
8:01before hiding their bodies by this track
8:0312 miles away
8:05there are no idea that this young man
8:09had not only abducted but murdered these
8:11two little girls murdered them in cold
8:13blood on a Sunday afternoon when they
8:16had been doing nothing more than going
8:18to buy sweets later at his old bailey
8:23trial Huntley was sentenced an order to
8:26serve at least forty years but feelings
8:30were running high from the moment he was
8:32charged
8:33[Applause]
8:37it was almost a lynch mob mentality
8:42running through the country for a while
8:44he became an incredible figure of hatred
8:47for the British public and I think
8:49anything less than two full life
8:52sentences would have been seen by most
8:55people as a great injustice but
8:58incredibly there was a danger that
9:00justice never would be done despite the
9:03circumstantial evidence the case against
9:06Huntley wasn't always open-and-shut
9:08only a series of crucial errors led to
9:11his conviction if Huntley hadn't made
9:13those critical mistakes then a guilty
9:17man could well have walked free so what
9:19were the mistakes made by one of
9:21Britain's most notorious killers that
9:23ensured he would be jailed for life
9:26[Music]
9:36soem the small Cambridgeshire market
9:39town was the center of international
9:41attention within days of schoolgirls
9:44Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman going
9:46missing
9:49the world media descended and Ian
9:53Huntley the man secretly responsible for
9:56the girl's disappearance was about to
9:58make his first big mistake
10:01[Music]
10:07Huntley started off not really wanting
10:11to talk to any journalists he'd
10:14obviously talk to the police because
10:16they knew that he was the last person to
10:18see the girls alive in his own words
10:21that is but he didn't really wants
10:25tortures Ian Huntley lived here at five
10:30college close just yards from soem
10:34Village College where he was a caretaker
10:36he shared the house with his girlfriend
10:39Maxine car she was a teaching assistant
10:42in Hawley and Jessica's class a new both
10:46girls world initially the couple were
10:49reluctant to speak to the media but one
10:51reporter was persistent I'm a journalist
10:56with the Press Association and in 2002 I
10:58was the first reporter to interview
11:00Ian Huntley and max Ian car he was quite
11:04emotional he was quite upset it seemed
11:07strange he was more upset than Maxine
11:10calm in his mannerisms and that seemed
11:13odd because Maxie knew so then I started
11:17to think well this is someone it must be
11:20on the police radar and then I started
11:23thinking we'd better photographic we may
11:24have his photograph
11:25but if he's arrested it might be the
11:27last chance we get
11:29and when Huntley refused to have his
11:32photograph taken he aroused even more
11:34suspicion I decided that he was going to
11:38have his photograph taken whether he
11:39liked it or not
11:42and the picture proved to be very
11:44important in a way I didn't realize at
11:46the time by agreeing to one interview
11:49Huntley found he couldn't just duck out
11:51of speaking to other reporters his
11:54problem was once he'd spoken to one
11:56journalist it was difficult for him to
11:59say no to other journalists radio would
12:02come and TV would come and say could you
12:05say to what he said to Brian on the
12:06television it's just saying yeah and to
12:12think that I might be the last friendly
12:13face that these two girls had to speak
12:16to eventually he agreed to this
12:19interview with a regional TV news
12:21program but laid down an unusual
12:23condition I don't want any of the
12:27national press to hold of this interview
12:32I'm doing is just for local television
12:34as I believe the children are still
12:37local and it's only relevant relative or
12:40local areas it's not going to be in the
12:42national interest and hey I've got to
12:45say well despite his early caution
12:48Huntley then developed a taste for the
12:50spotlight well we have an eyewitness
12:53Ian Huntley here's a familiar figure
12:55evening in I asked him if he'd do an
12:59interview with Sky a national 24-hour
13:02news network and he agreed now do the
13:05same to you Sinn Fein vote cheerful
13:07happy chatty I didn't see anything
13:10untoward nobody hanging around you know
13:13just seemed like normal happy kids I was
13:15unbeknown to me talking to a murder
13:18looking into the eyes with man who
13:21killed two little girls while there's no
13:24news then there's still that glimmer of
13:25hope and that's basically all hanging on
13:27to I fell straight off the bat when I
13:30saw him that this man knew more than
13:33what he was saying and that he wasn't
13:35being cooperative he was in fact being
13:37devious practicing perhaps for later
13:40question and there was nothing that
13:43Sunday evening that gave you glimmer of
13:45suspicion the day he was in the end that
13:49was probably the beginning of his
13:51undoing the fact he couldn't resist
13:54being part of the story but saying
13:59there's no while there's no news then
14:00there's still that glimmer of hope hope
14:02it soon became clear why Huntley had
14:05initially tried to stay out of the
14:07public eye when interviews like this
14:09were broadcast nationwide people in his
14:12hometown recognized a familiar face from
14:16the crime reporter in the Grimsby
14:18Telegraph and in 2002 we realized that
14:21the story ensuing had a Grimsby link we
14:24started getting calls in the newsroom
14:26that the man who'd appeared on
14:28television was Ian Huntley the caller's
14:31were telling us about his previous
14:32record of allegations of rape and
14:36underage sex with girls
14:40we found in our archives the front page
14:44story about an allegation of rape
14:46against a woman in a area of central
14:49Grimsby known as gas alley the man was
14:55in hunting
14:58we immediately contacted Humberside
15:00police
15:01although the rape charge was dropped in
15:041998 the police also received complaints
15:06about sex offenses allegedly carried out
15:09by Huntley on eight other women and
15:11girls but none of these led to a trial
15:14in court so he had no criminal record
15:17and Huntley
15:18wasn't the only one talking to the press
15:21nobody believes that they would ever run
15:23away there was very close to all their
15:27family just as Huntley was arousing
15:29suspicion by giving interviews so was
15:32his girlfriend this is something a
15:34product keep for the rest of my life I
15:35think it's what Holly gave me on the
15:38last nameday gave me this with a poem on
15:40the inside saying to a special teaching
15:44assisted really and we'll miss them a
15:47lot
15:47and we'll see you in the future and
15:49that's kind of girl she was she was just
15:51lovely
15:53that's the sort of girl she was both my
15:57producers said that was odd wasn't it
15:59she seemed to be speaking the past
16:00century st. was like the girls weren't
16:04around anymore and we both thought ya
16:12laddies or hazel we should mention that
16:14to the police it's now the biggest
16:18investigation into missing children the
16:20force here has ever undertaken as the
16:23police pulled resources into the inquiry
16:25it became clear that made errors of
16:28their own by launching a nationwide
16:31appeal and by using the photo of Holly
16:35and Jessica in their football shirts
16:36they stoped massive public interest and
16:40a televised reconstruction created even
16:43more to child actresses retrace the
16:46last-known movements of Holly Wells and
16:48Jessica Chapman
16:50[Music]
16:52the police incident room was overwhelmed
16:55it was receiving more than a thousand
16:57calls a day with officers struggling to
17:00cope a new man was put in charge
17:05twelve days after the girls disappeared
17:07I was appointed senior investigating
17:10officer I think it's easy to look back
17:12with hindsight and say that by using the
17:16media to publicize the disappearance of
17:18these two girls and to spread it almost
17:22worldwide was a mistake and one of the
17:26first things that I did when I took over
17:28was to refocus the investigation into
17:30the immediate locality it's a standard
17:32procedure to phrase we always use clear
17:35the ground under your feet and I didn't
17:36feel that that had been done key to this
17:40new approach was a review of the girls
17:42last-known movements and the whereabouts
17:44of Jessica's mobile phone which had
17:47disappeared
17:48jessyca rings distances can I go to the
17:51sweet shop with Holly
17:53and when officers started looking at
17:56what happened to Jessica's phone ian
17:58Huntley's second mistake began to emerge
18:01[Music]
18:11the police discovered that Jessica's
18:13mobile had been switched off in the
18:15early evening shortly after the girls
18:18were last seen alive on CCTV whoever had
18:21done it was probably responsible for
18:24their disappearance I was asked by
18:28Cambridgeshire police to examine the
18:30call records of Jessica's phone in
18:33particular where the phone might have
18:35been when it was turned off at 6:46 that
18:38evening whenever a mobile is switched
18:41off
18:42it sends what's known as a goodbye
18:44signal to a transmission mast
18:47based on Holly and Jessica's last known
18:49route the police expected that signal to
18:51be picked up here the so amassed
18:54situated at the local Football Club if
18:59it had then the soem cell site covers
19:02quite a large area and we wouldn't have
19:04known where to start looking but
19:06Jessica's phone did not send its goodbye
19:09signal to the sown mast up here it sent
19:13it to the Burwell mast which is some
19:16five miles south only a handful of
19:21locations in Salem could receive and
19:23transmit signals from the more remote
19:25Burwell mast and one of them was right
19:29on the route of Holly and Jessica's last
19:31book the one place where the phone on
19:36that route might have been served by the
19:38Burwell cell site was past the college
19:41right outside the caretakers house
19:46that meant that when Jessica's phone was
19:49powered down it must have been either
19:51outside or in the vicinity of Ian's
19:55Huntley's house suddenly the net was
19:59closing in on the so ax murderer the
20:04intelligence that we received on that
20:05Friday with regard to Jessica's mobile
20:08phone led to a complete refocus on the
20:11investigation this was a significant
20:13moment I felt at that time a sense of
20:17relief that we were definitely on the
20:19right track onion that we got the right
20:22man
20:24[Music]
20:3113 days into the search for missing soem
20:35schoolgirls
20:36Jessica Chapman and Halle wells the
20:38police were homing in on a suspect local
20:41school caretaker Ian Huntley his TV
20:46interviews had alerted them to his
20:48possible links with sexual assaults in
20:49his home town of Grimsby and mobile
20:53phone analysis showed at least one of
20:56the girls had been at or near his house
20:58at the time of their disappearance
21:02look at your neighbors think about your
21:03neighbors who's the left of you who's to
21:05the right and think of any strange
21:07behavior or anything like that and I
21:09think it's very good idea as handli
21:12portrayed himself as a man helping the
21:14police inquiry he was under
21:16investigation himself detectives also
21:19questioned his girlfriend
21:20Maxine Carr about his movements on the
21:23day the two ten-year-olds went missing
21:25and this is when a third crucial mistake
21:28was made not by Huntley but by his
21:31girlfriend
21:33[Music]
21:40Ian Huntley and Maxine Carr first met
21:44and started living together in their
21:46hometown of Grimsby they later moved
21:50south to sell them in Cambridgeshire
21:52where he got his caretakers job and she
21:55worked in Halle and Jessica's primary
21:57school as a teaching assistant in their
21:59class when Carr was asked where she and
22:12Huntley were on the day of Holi and
22:14Jessica's disappearance she was clear
22:16they were together at home at five
22:19college close car went into intricate
22:33detail even down to what she cooked for
22:35Sunday lunch
22:36[Music]
22:42so use you prepared all that car said
22:48she'd been with Huntley all day and
22:49nothing unusual had happened he had
22:52someone backing up his story but she was
22:56lying there was a big mistake on her
22:58part because we always check these
23:01things we can check two phone records
23:03and that's just what the police did they
23:06discovered that Huntley's phone had
23:08received several calls from cars mobile
23:10calls made from a hundred miles away she
23:14hadn't been with him and soem on the day
23:16in question she had been visiting her
23:18mother in Cromwell Road Grimsby she was
23:21trying to be clever she was trying to
23:23manipulate the inquiry but she wasn't
23:26very clever at doing it and also it put
23:28a lot more suspicion on Huntley as well
23:30because why would she lie and we were
23:33inevitably going to check it as we
23:35always do and it was while checking the
23:38content of the text the detectives made
23:40another alarming discovery
23:43Maxine Carr told Ian that she was going
23:46out to a party of course he'd on his own
23:49at home without any female company and
23:52he wasn't happy about that and there's
23:56no doubt they had words on that Sunday
23:58afternoon and that did nothing to
24:00improve his his demeanor and and his
24:03temper and I think that that played an
24:06integral part in the motivation for what
24:10he did to Holly and Jessica but what had
24:15he done to them inside the house at this
24:18point the police still had no idea and
24:21arresting Hundley would have posed a
24:24huge risk there was a possibility that
24:27Ian Huntley had abducted these two girls
24:30and they were alive I was concerned that
24:33if I went out and arranged for Hundley
24:35to be arrested immediately and he spent
24:38three or four days in custody those
24:41girls could die because he wasn't there
24:43to feed them instead the police decided
24:47to invite Huntley in for voluntary
24:49questioning Huntley lied from the start
24:56of his interview but the pressure was
24:58beginning to tell especially when
25:00officers asked him to describe what
25:02holly was like when he saw her on the
25:04day she disappeared
25:05he stayed silent for an astonishing 55
25:09seconds it was a good piece of
25:12interviewing a lot of interviewing
25:14officers would have said something
25:16during that almost a minute but they
25:19didn't and it became very significant I
25:22just felt that this was the man that we
25:25needed to focus on he was a clearly
25:30lying and he was clearly finding that
25:33interview uncomfortable when he was
25:36asked to describe what the girls looked
25:40like he was reliving his last vision of
25:43the girls and he didn't like what he saw
25:49I now police had no other suspects but
25:57they also lacked proof of Huntley's
25:59involvement in Holly and Jessica's
26:00disappearance
26:02later that evening he was released along
26:05with car who had also been questioned we
26:09were in a quandary we had enormous
26:10amount of circumstantial evidence which
26:12pointed to both her involvement but we
26:14didn't have forensic evidence we didn't
26:16have the bodies so we didn't even know
26:19it was a murder investigation at this
26:21time
26:21but the police's frustration in their
26:24investigation of Ian Huntley would soon
26:26come to an end as a result of Huntley's
26:29fourth critical error
26:31[Music]
26:39ever since the girl's disappearance
26:41police had been combing every inch of
26:44Salem trying to find them dead or alive
26:47among the first places they searched was
26:50the village High School where Huntley
26:52was caretaker but with the inquiries
26:55stalled the lead detective ordered his
26:57officers to search it again I decided
27:01that the searches that were done
27:03initially weren't thorough enough and in
27:06fact Huntley had been present on some of
27:08the searches and may well have directed
27:11search teams away from relevant areas so
27:14I decided that we would go back and
27:16search the whole of the school premises
27:18today there was a massive undertaking
27:23and it led to a phone call to me very
27:27late about 11:30 p.m.
27:28from the search commander to tell me
27:31that there had been a significant find
27:33that song and that the girls clothing
27:36had been found in a bin concealed in the
27:40building to which Hundley had access
27:43when police found the partially burnt
27:45clothes they knew the girls must now be
27:49dead
27:50[Music]
28:05it was that terrible grim heavy feeling
28:10that gets in your soul and in your mind
28:13the first time we actually knew the
28:17police thought of a death
28:20[Music]
28:24I shall never forget the moment that I
28:29received the phone call that they had
28:30found the girls clothing
28:37and it was in such a condition that
28:39really there was no hope of finding the
28:42girls alive
28:43[Music]
28:50quite clearly that was a huge watershed
28:53moment and I can remember the impact
28:57that it had the football shirts that had
29:06appeared in every newspaper and on every
29:08TV bulletin had been placed at the
29:11bottom of a bin as this police computer
29:13simulation shows someone I put a black
29:16plastic liner on top to conceal them
29:19Tess had to be carried out to determine
29:21who that person was but detectives were
29:24sure they already knew Huntley obviously
29:27felt happy but he could conceal the
29:30clothing there and it would never be
29:32found because we wouldn't go back and
29:34look again that turned out to be a big
29:36mistake in the last few hours a 28-year
29:42old man and a 25 year old woman have
29:46been arrested Huntley and car were taken
29:49into custody on suspicion of murder as
29:51soon as the clothes were discovered
29:53whilst their car dramatically changed
29:56her story finally admitting where she
29:59really was on the day of the schoolgirls
30:01disappearance
30:05Oh Carl
30:17claimed she'd been simply trying to
30:19protect Huntley from being arrested he'd
30:21previously spent time on remand for rape
30:23and she said he couldn't cope with life
30:26in a Cell she's present and yeah let's
30:30write down everything out
30:36the investigation was gathering pace the
30:39search for the girls now becomes a
30:42search for the bodies and just a few
30:45hours later it moved into a whole new
30:47phase the discovery of two bodies by a
30:51member of the public at lunchtime today
30:53in thick woodland next to the RAF base
30:55and Lakenheath
30:59was just a a desperately damp and
31:04horrible day to be reporting really I
31:06[Music]
31:07felt very sad we felt as though we knew
31:10the girls we were devastated in 2002 I
31:17was the police officer he was in charge
31:19of the site
31:20where Holly and Jessica's bodies were
31:22found I walked up this track into the
31:28woodland and I looked into the ditch I
31:32couldn't say that they were Holly and
31:34Jessica
31:37they had been in that ditch probably for
31:40nearly two weeks at that stage so it was
31:43impossible to tell who was who out of an
31:51evening mist which had fallen on a
31:53remote patch of Suffolk woodland the
31:55bodies of Holly and Jessica were taken
31:57away when I first visited the mortuary
32:00on that Sunday night it really came home
32:03to me then the enormity of what had
32:06happened I was very keen that the
32:10families did not see the two girls in
32:13this decomposed state I didn't want them
32:15to look at the scenes that I'd been
32:17looking at over over that day the police
32:22were unable to recover any forensic
32:24evidence from this site linking Huntley
32:26to the bodies but they still had the
32:30shirts found in one of the buildings
32:32where he worked
32:33they'd are scientists to examine the bin
32:36liner which had been placed over them
32:38and the results were in they said
32:41Hundley's fingerprint is on the actual
32:45bin liner on top of the clothes in the
32:48bin and in such a position that only the
32:51person putting that bin liner in that
32:53bin would have touched it using computer
32:57graphics experts were later able to
32:59demonstrate just how hard Huntley had
33:01tried to hide the clothes hundra tried
33:04to say that as a caretaker I handled bin
33:07bags every day of course my fingerprints
33:10will be on the bin bags but the the
33:12method that we used to display where
33:14these fingerprints were clearly
33:16indicated that he had put his hands
33:19inside the bag and had opened out the
33:22bag from the inside to conceal the
33:25clothes underneath and that was not the
33:28day-to-day handling of a bin bag as his
33:31duties as a caretaker
33:32they were the actions of a person who
33:35wanted to conceal what was underneath
33:38the forensic scientists then found
33:40fibers from the shirts in Huntley's
33:42house and even on one of the boots he
33:45was wearing when he was arrested
33:49we related we knew at that point that we
33:52had our man and that man was Huntley and
33:55he was going to be charged with the
33:57crime of murder but the police still had
34:01to convince a jury to find their suspect
34:03guilty and Huntley's final mistake
34:07helped them to do just that August the
34:2017th 2002 13 days after Holly and
34:24Jessica disappeared Ian Huntley was back
34:27in police custody this time under arrest
34:30for suspicion of murder but our two
34:33giving so many media interviews during
34:35the search he was now silent he was
34:51unable to speak which we found quite
34:54unusual and quite disturbing bang in
34:56mind only a few hours before he'd been
34:59speaking quite coherently throughout an
35:01interval by now please had recovered
35:05Holly and Jessica's football shirts
35:07concealed in a bin at the school where
35:09Huntley was caretaker but how could they
35:12link him to the bodies which have been
35:14discovered hidden in a ditch twelve
35:16miles away yet again Huntley unwittingly
35:19gave them their breakthrough
35:21[Music]
35:30after his first press interview Huntley
35:33was pictured getting into his aging Ford
35:35Fiesta the car he used to take the girls
35:38bodies away to the reporter who'd just
35:41spoken to him he looked like a routine
35:42photo what I didn't see was what
35:45blissful they didn't look at he and
35:48Huntley faced what the detectives
35:49noticed was new tires on an old car the
35:56question is tell me why would a school
35:58caretaker be buying four new tires at a
36:01time detectives discovered he bought the
36:05tires here the day after the girls were
36:08murdered he'd paid a fitter ten pounds
36:11to put a false registration on the
36:12invoice I knew the significance of that
36:17I knew the impact that that would have
36:18on a jury
36:21fears that forensic evidence might
36:23unlock unti were clearly playing on his
36:25mind a conversation he'd had with a
36:28policewoman who was never spoken on TV
36:30before explains all in 2002 I was a
36:37special constable for Cambridgeshire
36:39Constabulary I was put on duty at the
36:43college and I was approached by a man
36:46who I now know to be in the Huntley
36:50alarm bells rang as soon as I started
36:52talking to him because it was just a
36:54very strange person full stop every time
36:58he referred to the girls
37:00it was always past tense it was never in
37:03the present
37:08he then just suddenly went on to blur
37:11time
37:12how long does DNA evidence last for my
37:19comment was it last forever they've used
37:21it on wooly mammoths and they've used it
37:23on the Russians our family and I thought
37:25that's strange very strange why would
37:28somebody just say that that is not what
37:31a normal member of the public says to
37:33some dear sat in uniform in front of
37:35them police believe that after this
37:38conversation aunt Lee was so worried
37:40about lingering DNA that within hours
37:43he'd driven back to the ditch where he'd
37:45hidden Polly and Jessica's bodies he cut
37:49off their clothing and tried to burn off
37:51any remaining forensic evidence on the
37:53bodies with petrol
37:56he thought he was in the clear that
37:58there was no other way to link his car
38:00to this track but he was wrong
38:04I'm a forensic geologist after the
38:08murders the police asked me to examine
38:10Huntley's car to see if there might be
38:13any evidence that would link it to the
38:16track where the bodies were discovered
38:17to do that the first thing I did was
38:20look at the car itself and it was fairly
38:24obvious immediately that there was an
38:26extensive deposit of soil and rocky
38:28material on the suspension arm on the
38:31front left wheel it had quite a lot of
38:33pieces of chalk in it the next thing I
38:36did was go to the track where the bodies
38:39had been hidden the farmer who owned
38:42this track had recently resurfaced it
38:44one of the materials had used was chalk
38:49what's great about you is it contains
38:52thousands upon thousands of very very
38:54tiny fossils what we call unsurprisingly
38:57micro fossils and you can send them off
39:00and have them dated according to the
39:03fossils that you find in these two types
39:06of chalk the one from the car the one
39:08from the track were identical on or was
39:15the 20th 16 days after Holly and
39:18Jessica's disappearance Huntley was
39:21charged with their murders officers
39:24broke the news to his fiancee Maxine
39:26Carr who was also in custody but was car
39:40as ignorant of his crimes as she claimed
39:42King Cole was undoubtedly responsible
39:44for quite a lot of that in spite of the
39:47story that she was telling to police
39:50although the jury accepted her account
39:53that she didn't know Huntley had killed
39:55the girls others are not so sure
39:58I believe Maxine card to be as equally
40:02evil as humbly and I say that because
40:05there's no doubt in my mind that she
40:07knew what had happened she could have
40:10taken the opportunity to come forward
40:13told us what she knew but she didn't and
40:16if I think she's as evil and as
40:20calculating as Hundley himself
40:22Ian Huntley and Maxine Carr were brought
40:25to the Old Bailey in separate vans in
40:30December 2003 Carr was jailed for three
40:33and a half years for conspiring to
40:35pervert the course of justice because of
40:38her time on remand
40:40she served less than six months and now
40:42lives under an assumed name
40:44Huntley after initially denying
40:47everything dramatically changed his
40:49story yes
40:52the girls were in the caretakers house
40:54yes Ian Huntley was there when they died
40:57[Music]
40:58he told the court that both girls had
41:01died accidentally and pleaded guilty to
41:04the lesser charge of manslaughter but
41:08the prosecution still pressed for a
41:10murder conviction after four agonizing
41:13days of deliberation the jury returned
41:16its verdict guilty of murdering Holly
41:20wells and Jessica trattman
41:21the firm caretaker is sentenced to life
41:23in prison for both murders are so
41:26pleased for the parents that we've got
41:28the right person the right verdict had
41:30come in that's the time to reflect on
41:32what really happened here and the horror
41:34of the last moments these two girls and
41:38there's something there that always
41:41stays with you
41:45and on this particular one it does on
41:51occasions come back but I am proud of
41:55the job that we did its conclusion and
41:59honey still remains behind bars which is
42:02which is the correct thing yet it just
42:06grabbed you sometimes it does come bye
42:11hunky was convicted but only by a
42:14majority verdict and would it have been
42:17different if he hadn't made his series
42:19of mistakes if he hadn't used his car to
42:27dispose of the bodies if he hadn't gone
42:30back to cut off their shirts and conceal
42:32them in the school bin
42:35if Jessica's phone hadn't been turned
42:38off right outside his house
42:41and if he'd been able to resist speaking
42:44to the media we hadn't made those
42:50mistakes we would have struggled my view
42:53to gain a conviction Huntley by making
42:56those mistakes convicted himself as the
42:59perfect crime I never been committed I
43:01doubt it I think we would have got him
43:04convicted
43:05I think the we would have stood a good
43:07chance but without those shirts it would
43:09have been a much weaker case I had he
43:12not returned and collected the clothing
43:14and taken it back to the College then we
43:17might not be sat here today talking
43:18about him being convicted for the murder
43:21of your children it may have been a
43:23manslaughter verdict instead of murder
43:25and a much shorter sentence and Hundley
43:28would have been out now instead of
43:29facing a minimum of 40 years
43:31imprisonment which will take him nearly
43:34to his 70th birthday that's a long time
43:37Huntley is only 45 and only 15 years
43:41into his sentence
43:42[Music]
43:45in 2004 number five college clothes was
43:49demolished and the rubble taken away to
43:51deterred ghoulish souvenir hunters
43:53[Music]
43:57today just an empty tract of grassland
44:00remains
44:04but the events of 2002 will never be
44:07erased from the town of Solon and
44:09neither will the memories of Holly Wells
44:12and Jessica Chapman
44:15[Music]

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