Soham murders reach court
It is an image that will haunt the country forever.
Two best friends, fresh-faced, innocent and smiling, stand side by side in matching Manchester United football tops.
Ninety minutes after posing for this infamous photograph, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman vanished from their homes in Soham, Cambridgeshire, on August 4 last year.
For 13 days their desperately anxious families - and millions of members of the public - clung to the hope that the two ten-year-olds would be found safe and well.
It was a nightmare Kevin and Nicola Wells and Leslie and Sharon Chapman had to bear so publicly, begging at press conferences for the safe return of their daughters.
But hope gave way to horror and bleak despair on August 17 when the girls' bodies were discovered in woodland graves at Lakenheath, Suffolk, 15 miles from their homes.
Today Holly and Jessica's parents, who bore their grief with such dignity, will come face to face in court with the man accused of killing their daughters.
The trial, expected to last three months, is one of the biggest to be held at the Old Bailey in the last ten years and will be reported around the world. Hundreds of people are expected to queue to sit in the public gallery to see Ian Huntley and Maxine Carr together in the same dock.
Huntley, 29, former caretaker at Soham Village Centre, has admitted perverting the course of justice by misleading police about the whereabouts of Carr on August 4 and 5, last year. He denies murder.
Carr, 26, who was the girls' classroom assistant at St Andrews primary school in Soham, denies attempting to pervert the course of justice and two charges of assisting an offender.
She allegedly lied about Huntley's whereabouts.
Holly and Jessica vanished after they were seen walking near their homes. In the photograph of the girls in their soccer shirts - both were keen Manchester United fans and adored David Beckham - they were standing under a clock showing just a few minutes past 5pm, an hour-and-a-half before they went missing.
More than 400 police officers from 23 forces were involved in what became the biggest manhunt in British criminal history. Huntley is being held at Belmarsh prison in South-East London, and Carr is remanded at HMP Holloway, in North London.
Both will be brought to courtroom number one amid tight security.
Holly and Jessica's parents were in court in April when the pair made their first appearance together in the dock at the Old Bailey.
Much of this week is expected to be taken up with legal argument. The trial will start in earnest next Monday.
Leading counsel for the prosecution is father-of-three Richard Latham QC. Huntley will be defended by Stephen Coward QC, a barrister with 39 years' experience. Carr will be represented by Michael Hubbard QC, 61.
The judge is Mr Justice Moses, 57, who was in charge of the trial of former MI5 officer David Shayler.
