Soham trial halted again due to illness
The Soham double child murder trial was halted for a second day today because of a juror’s illness.
Trial judge Mr Justice Moses adjourned the 24-day case yesterday after a female juror was taken to see a doctor.
He said a further decision would be taken on the progress of the trial once a doctor’s report was received.
The jury of seven women and five men had been due to hear closing speeches in the murder trial into the deaths of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman on Sunday August 4 last year.
The trial, which began on November 3, was due to enter its final stages this week, as the lawyers for the prosecution and both defendants began their closing speeches.
The jury had heard that they would be sent out to consider their verdicts some time this week, once the judge had given his summing-up, but that timing could now be altered.
Ian Huntley, aged 29, a former caretaker at Soham Village College, denies the double child murder of the 10-year-old friends but has admitted a single charge of conspiring to pervert the course of justice.
The jury has heard he admits Holly died accidentally in his bath and that he killed Jessica as he tried to silence her screams, although he insists he did not mean to kill her.
He bundled their bodies into his car, dumped them in the remote ditch where they were found 13 days later, cut off their clothes and torched their corpses.
His ex-girlfriend Maxine Carr, aged 26, a former classroom assistant in Holly and Jessica’s class, denies conspiring to pervert the course of justice and two counts of assisting an offender.
She has told the jury that she lied to protect her then fiancé, giving him a false alibi, but insisted she never suspected he could be involved in the girls’ disappearance.
