Post by Taxigirl on Nov 26, 2003 18:57:30 GMT
Ian Huntley was charged with raping a girl in 1998 but later cleared, his Old Bailey trial has heard.
The details came in a statement made by ex-girlfriend Maxine Carr to police.
She told them that after Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman went missing, Mr Huntley said: "I am going to get fitted up again."
Ms Carr denies helping an offender and conspiring to pervert the course of justice and Mr Huntley denies murdering the girls in August 2002.
In her statement Ms Carr said she had initially lied to cover for her then boyfriend because he had had a nervous breakdown after the rape charge.
She said Mr Huntley had not asked her to lie for him.
According to Ms Carr, Mr Huntley was living in a bail hostel in Scunthorpe when he was accused of raping a girl.
But when the case came to court, she said, CCTV footage showed him to be in a club at the time of the alleged attack and he was acquitted.
Jury advised
Trial judge Mr Justice Moses told the jury what Ms Carr had told police in her interviews was only evidence in her case, adding: "It is not evidence in the case of Ian Huntley. He was not there, he was not there to say 'You have got that wrong, you have got that right'."
In the same police interview - which Ms Carr requested because she wanted to change her story - she said the couple's bath needed to be changed because their eight and a half stone dog Sadie had broken it.
She said on 4 August 2002 - the day the girls vanished - the dog needed a bath but she scrambled about in the tub and cracked it.
The evidence of the broken bath follows the suggestion on Tuesday from Mr Huntley's defence team that Holly died after accidentally falling into the bath, while Jessica Chapman collapsed and died after Mr Huntley tried to stop her screaming.
Ms Carr also said in her statement Mr Huntley rang her all of the weekend the girls disappeared because she had an eating disorder and he wanted to make sure she was eating.
Nosebleed evidence
In other evidence on Wednesday, a forensic expert queried how Holly could have drowned in Mr Huntley's bath without being forced under water.
The court also had heard pathologist Nat Cary said it was "unlikely at the least" that Holly had drowned when two people were present.
The girls had gone into Mr Huntley's bathroom so he could help Holly with a nosebleed, Mr Huntley's lawyer Stephen Coward QC told the court on Tuesday.
Dr Cary said there is a tendency for nosebleeds to contaminate the hands and drip on objects, including clothing, but that Holly's top was not contaminated by blood.
He added that even if a top contaminated by blood went into a tub of water "in my understanding [the top] should still test positive for blood".
Mr Coward said that Mr Huntley had tried to help by handing Holly some wet tissue, but as he did so he slipped and banged into her.
Dr Cary told the court someone who drowns in the bath is usually intoxicated by alcohol or drugs or is an epileptic.
He said that "in all cases" it is a "solitary affair" and that drowning with a third party present is usually a "forced drowning".
"Why no rescue of Holly? Drowning would take some time, it's not instantaneous."
He also said "vigorous struggling" would be needed to "smother" Jessica.
"You would have to either force them up against something in order to cover the nose or mouth, perhaps a wall, or put your hand behind the head and smother with the other," he said.
"I find it wholly implausible that Jessica somehow is smothered to death in an upright posture."
While the defence suggested Holly fell into 18 inches of water, Dr Cary said because of the height of the overflow outlet it could only have been 11 inches high, unless the overflow was blocked.
The trial was adjourned until Thursday.