Girls' murder case sparks inquiry
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Huntley (right) had denied murdering the two girls. Carr had denied three charges against her.
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Ian Huntley was quizzed in many child sex cases but not convicted until he killed. CNN's Matthew Chance (December 17)
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LONDON, England (CNN) -- An inquiry is under way in Britain into how a man convicted of murdering two 10-year-girls got a job as caretaker at their school despite previous allegations of sex offenses.
Ian Huntley, 29, was given two life sentences at London's Old Bailey court on Wednesday after a jury refused to believe his story that he had killed the two girls accidentally.
The deaths of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman -- pictured shortly before their disappearance in red Manchester United football shirts -- sparked Britain's biggest ever missing persons investigation and worldwide media coverage.
Home Secretary David Blunkett said an inquiry would be launched after it was revealed that police checks on Huntley when he applied for his job at Soham Village College failed to reveal allegations of rape, indecent assault on an 11-year-old, and allegations he had sex with a string of schoolgirls.
In total, he came to the attention of police where he previously lived in Humberside, 100 miles from Soham, on 10 occasions. (Full story)
Huntley murdered Wells and Chapman at his house in Soham, eastern England, in August 2002 just minutes after they vanished from their homes.
His former fiancee Maxine Carr, 26, who lied to police by claiming she was with him at the time the girls were killed, was found not guilty of helping an offender but guilty of conspiring to pervert the course of justice. She was jailed for three-and-a-half years. (Full story)
Carr, a former teaching assistant at the girls' school, has already spent half her sentence in custody. She could be released in just 30 days' time under an electronic tagging scheme that frees well-behaved, non-dangerous inmates up to 135 days early.
Huntley, whose exact sentence will be set at a later date by a senior judge, is expected to serve at least 20 years.
After the case the girls' parents said they were surprised Huntley had pleaded not guilty to murder and had questioned the system under which he was allowed to offer a story by way of explanation at the last minute.
Holly Wells' father Kevin said Huntley was "backed into a position" then launched an "eleventh hour, last ditch" defense. But he said the case had been proved "beyond reasonable doubt."
The disappearance of the two girls received world media coverage.
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Jessica Chapman's father Leslie, speaking about Huntley, said: "I think it was a time bomb just ready to go off and both our girls were in the wrong place and at the wrong time. There is nothing to say any more about him.
"I hope that the next time I will have to see him will be like we saw our daughters, and it will be in a coffin."
The girls were discovered missing on August 4, 2002, after leaving a family barbecue at Holly's house to go for a stroll in their hometown.
After a two-week search, the girls' bodies were found side-by-side in a remote drainage ditch 15 miles from Soham.
Following the sentencing, Chris Stevenson , the senior investigating officer on the case, said, "Ian Huntley carried out the most wicked crime and will pay for it for the rest of his life."
Stevenson said Huntley's refusal to cooperate with police forced the families to the two girls to endure a trial.
"He thought he would get away with it," said Stevenson, adding that perhaps one day Huntley would admit what actually happened the day the girls were killed.
Britain's attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, announced a probe into stories reported by newspapers on the case.
Court observers believe Huntley's lawyers could possibly mount an appeal based on the belief that his case had been prejudiced if the attorney general finds that news organizations violated court orders about reporting on the case.
-- CNN correspondent Diana Muriel in Soham England contributed to this report
