It is 10 years since the bodies of murdered schoolgirls Holly Wells and
Jessica Chapman were found buried in a shallow grave near a Suffolk airbase.
Their deaths at the hands of Ian Huntley sparked a major investigation after it
emerged the school caretaker had previously faced allegations of rape and
under-age sex.
Now, ahead of Friday's 10th anniversary of the girls' bodies
being found, one of the key recommendations of the Bichard Inquiry that followed
the double murder is approaching a major landmark. The Police National Database
(PND), set up last year to ensure convicts and suspects could not hide across
county borders, is set to hit one million searches.
The disappearance of the
10-year-old girls from their home town of Soham, in Cambridgeshire, prompted one
of Britain's biggest police investigations and saw Huntley jailed for life in
2003. Sir Michael Bichard, who oversaw a 200-page report into police and vetting
procedures, found "deeply shocking" failures. The creation of the database was
described by the parents of Holly and Jessica as a "defining moment" to mark the
passing of their daughters. Sharon and Les Chapman, Jessica's parents, said: "We
hope [the database's] use will mean other families don't suffer the same loss
and heartbreak as we did." Since being set up, the database has helped to
identify potential leads in a double murder inquiry, helped police trace a
missing registered sex offender and provided information on a domestic violence
offender which helped officers identify a second victim.
Collectively, police
forces hold information on between 10 and 15 million people. These include
convicted criminals, suspects and victims of crime, as well as the details of
people who have been questioned by police but not charged. The database combines
intelligences from all 43 forces in England and Wales, bringing together 150
computer systems. By Tuesday, the number of searches carried out by police
forces using the database had reached 975,000, the National Policing Improvement
Agency (NPIA) said. The NPIA says the current rate of inquiries means it is
likely to hit the one million mark by Friday - exactly 10 years on from the
discovery of the girls' bodies. Chief Constable Nick Gargan, chief executive of
the NPIA, said: "When we rolled out the database, for the first time the British
police service could link up intelligence that was held on individual systems in
individual forces. "It could be accessed directly by colleagues in other forces
and was a major leap forward." Consultant forensic psychologist Dr Ian Stephen
said the database would help criminal profilers. "Huntley's past would fit into
the profile of a killer who commits crimes which gradually escalate in terms of
seriousness," he said. "The problem was his past was not known by detectives.
"With better sharing of information it will hopefully become easier for
investigators to identify individuals who fit psychological profiles."
Soham
Village College caretaker Huntley was given a double life sentence after being
found guilty at the Old Bailey in December 2003. His girlfriend Maxine Carr was
also jailed for three-and-a-half years after being convicted of perverting the
course of justice for giving Huntley a false alibi. She was given a new identity
following her release from prison. Holly and Jessica, both aged 10, were found
in Mildenhall, nearly two weeks after they went missing. They were murdered at
Huntley's home in Soham.
The Reverend Tim Alban Jones, of St Andrew's Church, in
Soham, said the church did not plan to mark the 10th anniversary of the grim
discovery. "It is very much a time for the families," he said.
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