The Soham double murder trial entered its second day of witness evidence at the Old Bailey today.
Officials from Soham Village College, where defendant Mr Ian Huntley worked as a caretaker, and townspeople involved in the search for missing girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were being called to give evidence.
Mr Huntley (29) denies murdering the 10-year-old friends but has admitted conspiring to pervert the course of justice.
His ex-girlfriend, Ms Maxine Carr (26), a former classroom assistant at the girls' primary school, denies conspiring to pervert the course of justice and two charges of assisting an offender.
The prosecution alleges she gave Mr Huntley a false alibi for the day the girls went missing, Sunday August 4th, last year. Their bodies were found in a remote ditch near Lakenheath, Suffolk, 13 days later.
The first witness called by the prosecution today was Mr Benjamin Hickling, managing director of a local firm.
Mr Hickling told the court he had visited Soham Village College on March 21st, 2002, and was shown around the site by Mr Huntley.
As well as talking about windows, he said they had a more general and personal discussion during which they discovered they were both interested in aeroplanes.
Mr Huntley said that one of the reasons he had moved to the area from Grimsby was that it was near the RAF base at Lakenheath. Mr Huntley told him he had found a "quiet area" where you could watch the planes take off.
Mr Hickling said: "It was an area that you were not supposed to go down.
"It was an area where he [Mr Huntley] spent a lot of time, an area he enjoyed going to because of his interest in planes. He would say that no one ever goes down there."
Earlier this week the jury of seven women and five men visited a remote ditch near the Lakenheath airbase where the bodies of Holly and Jessica were found.
Mr Marcus Bull was then called to the witness box. Mr Bull, a cousin of Mr Hickling, was joint manager in the firm and went to Soham Village College for the meeting with Mr Huntley.
Mr Bull said he had no particular interest in aircraft but recalled Mr Huntley saying he did and had knowledge of planes and plane-spotting.
"He gave the impression he had access to somewhere where he could get to watch planes that was not available to others or not widely known," Mr Bull added.
PA