Pathologist doubts Huntley’s accidental deaths story
A pathologist told the jury in the Soham murders trial today that he would have expected someone who had drowned in a bath to have been held under by a third party.
Nathaniel Cary cast doubt over murders suspect Ian Huntley’s account of how Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman accidentally died in his bathroom.
The Old Bailey heard yesterday that Mr Huntley claims Holly fell into the bath at his home in the Cambridgeshire village, while Jessica died after he tried to smother her screams.
Home Office pathologist Dr Cary said he would have associated such drownings with people who were either epileptic or under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
He added: “I would associate drowning with a third party present as forced drowning.”
The girls had gone into Mr Huntley’s bathroom so he could help Holly with a nosebleed, Mr Huntley’s defence barrister, Stephen Coward QC, said.
Dr Cary said that no spots of blood were ever found on the Manchester United top, which was surprising even if Mr Huntley had succeeded in stopping the bleeding.
The pathologist examined the former caretaker’s story overnight and concluded that he “could not see” how a fit and healthy girl had become immersed under the water with two other people present in the bathroom.
Dr Cary, who conducted the post-mortem examinations on Holly and Jessica, said he consulted two other forensic scientists, Peter Lamb and Helen Davey, after giving evidence on Tuesday.
He told the court at the Old Bailey that he had also spoken to police officers so that he could examine the bath and photographs of the bathroom.
Dr Cary suggested that Mr Huntley’s admission that he had placed a hand over Jessica’s mouth to stop her screaming had prevented her from rescuing Holly. He added that the only way she could have been smothered was “forced restraint against vigorous struggling”.
On Tuesday Dr Cary said that he had been unable to establish the cause of the girls’ deaths because of the state their bodies were in when they were found.
Holly and Jessica vanished from their homes in Soham on August 4th last year.
Their disappearance sparked one of the UK’s largest ever manhunts. The two bodies were discovered in a ditch near the airbase at Lakenheath in Suffolk on August 17th.
Ian Huntley, 29, denies two counts of murder but has admitted a single charge of conspiring to pervert the course of justice.
His former girlfriend Maxine Carr, 26, has denied two charges of assisting an offender and one of conspiring to pervert the course of justice.
The case continues.
