Jury to visit key locations as part of Soham trial
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The village of Soham will be shut in effect today as part of the murder trial into the deaths of Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells.
On the sixth day of the trial, members of the jury will visit a number of significant locations linked to the deaths of the two schoolgirls.
The detached house shared by Ian Huntley and Maxine Carr in the grounds of Soham Village College will be seen by jurors during the two-day visit.
They will also visit the ditch where the bodies of the two girls were found in a remote wooded area 12 days after their disappearance on 4 August last year. The jurors will be accompanied by Mr Justice Moses, the trial judge, who said the visit was designed to help jurors decide "important features about the location".
Although security guards have been deployed since before the start of the trial to keep so-called "tourists" away from Soham, the visit is expected to create a considerable upheaval to village life.
Roads to the village and the proposed sites will be cordoned off in an attempt to minimise disruption to the proceedings. Children in Soham have been given at least one day off school and teachers have asked parents to avoid the village college area and other places that jurors are expected to visit.
The sites are to be considered precincts of the court, which will be in session throughout the visit. Jury members will be accommodated for one night at an undisclosed location. The trial will resume at the Old Bailey on Wednesday, when the first prosecution witnesses are expected to be called.
Mr Huntley, 29, denies two charges of murder but has admitted a charge of conspiring to pervert the course of justice. Ms Carr, 26, denies two counts of assisting an offender and one of conspiring to pervert the course of justice.