Caretaker Convicted of Killing Schoolgirls

A former school caretaker was convicted Wednesday of murder in the slayings of two 10-year-old girls, closing a case that had sent British police on a two-week nationwide manhunt and transfixed the country.

A jury rejected Ian Huntley’s claim that he killed Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman accidentally after inviting them into his home to treat Holly for a nosebleed.

“You murdered them both,” Judge Alan Moses told Huntley, sentencing him to two life terms. “Your tears have never been for them, only for yourself. In your lies and manipulation up to this very day you have increased the suffering you have caused the two families.”

Huntley’s onetime girlfriend, Maxine Carr, 26, was acquitted of aiding in the killings but convicted of conspiring with Huntley to obstruct justice.

The case dominated British headlines for weeks after Holly and Jessica vanished from the village of Soham on Aug. 4, 2002.

Huntley, 29, and Carr often spoke to reporters during the search for the girls, with Huntley saying he thought he was one of the last people to see them alive.

At trial, Huntley testified that he inadvertently knocked Holly into his bathtub, killing her, while trying to staunch her nosebleed. He said Jessica died after he put a hand over her mouth to silence her screams.

After the verdicts were handed down, police said they had had 10 “contacts” with Huntley before the Soham killings, investigating him in four rape cases and on suspicion that he had sex with girls as young as 13 and assaulted a 12-year-old.

None of the cases came to trial, and police said they failed to find records of the investigations when asked to check Huntley for the school caretaker job. Home Secretary David Blunkett promised an official inquiry.

The girls’ parents said they were relieved by Huntley’s conviction.

“Our life sentence started last August, his is only just beginning,” said Leslie Chapman, Jessica’s father.