BRITAIN: The school caretaker being interviewed in connection with the investigation into the disappearance of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman had only begun work at Soham Village College within the last nine months, the local education authority said last night.
Mr Ian Huntley (28), started work in either December last year or January this year, when he was known as Ian Nixon. He changed his name two or three months ago "for family reasons", a Cambridgeshire County Council spokesman said.
He had not worked as a caretaker before but had held a number of jobs, mostly in the Lincolnshire area. He was appointed as the residential senior site officer, in charge of a team of three others.
His partner, Ms Maxine Carr, began work at St Andrew's primary school, which the two 10- year-olds attended, on a voluntary basis in February 2002. She continued until Easter when she was awarded a short-term contract as a teaching assistant. She worked in classes 11 and 12, and Holly and Jessica were both in class 12.
Both Mr Huntley and Ms Carr have previously given interviews to reporters about Holly and Jessica's disappearance.
Mr Huntley told reporters last week how he saw the girls on the day they disappeared. The last sighting being treated as confirmed by police was at 7.20 p.m. by a Soham woman, Ms Margaret Willers, who said she saw the girls outside Sergio's Italian restaurant in the town's main street.
Speaking a few days after their disappearance, Mr Huntley wept as he recounted what he saw. He told reporters he spoke to the girls at about 6.15 p.m. on Sunday, about an hour before the last positive sighting of them.
He said he was washing his dog near the front door of his house in Soham when he saw the two girls.
"I was outside cleaning the dog down when these two girls, Jessica and Holly, appeared.
"They said 'How's Miss Carr?'. I said 'She's not very good, she didn't get the job'. She had been a teaching assistant and had applied for a job full-time but didn't get it.
"I just saw them for a few minutes. I don't know where they came from but they walked off down the road towards the library.
"When they were out there, they were as happy as Larry. I've never seen them walk past this house before. They haven't run away. They didn't have a care in the world. It was a very brief conversation. I must have been one of the last people to speak to them. You can't help thinking about it."
Mr Huntley wept as he added: "It seems they have just disappeared off the face of the earth. How can two girls go missing in broad daylight, then nothing? No sighting. No nothing. It beggars belief."
Ms Carr told reporters last week: "On the last day of school, Holly gave me a card with a smiley face on the front and a poem inside. She was crying because I didn't get the job."
She said of best friends Jessica and Holly: "Lovely, really bubbly girls, ever so funny, kind to everybody." - (PA)