Ian Huntley, the school caretaker (janitor) who was arrested for the suspected murder of the two girls has now been charged with their murder - he has also been sectioned under the Mental Health Act which means that he is detained in a secure psychiatric hospital and can be treated without having to give consent. He can be held under this Act for up to 28 days although it is possible to have the case reviewed after five days.

The woman has not yet been charged, she is still in police custody.

I suppose they are going slow and sure. But there are so many unanswered questions for me over HERE! I'm not familiar with British law. Everything is not UP FRONT and discussed and exposed, such as in US law. I have a lot of questions! Thanks for the update...........

Sue: I hope you don't mind me just making a minor correction to your post.

He has been sectioned under the mental health act of 1983, but he is not there for treatment as yet. He is there soley for the purpose of determining if he is fit to face trial.

Apparently, during the police interveiws, all he did was drool and nod his head. Amazing how these people change their appearance when they have been caught, and after seeing his TV interview, and his now alleged mental state, to me this is nothing short of an admission of guilt but trying to find an easy way out.

The girlfriend has now been charged and appeared in court this morning in my home town of Peterborough where a rather large crowd was reported to be waiting.
She is charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice.
If found guilty, in my eyes, she is no better than him and deserves all she gets and more.
It appears she thought more about her relationship with him than the lives of two innocent little girls.

I'll forward anymore information as and when I get it.

I didn't mean WOULD be treated, only that he CAN be treated without him having to give consent, that is they can give him medication etc should they decide it appropriate. I was only explaining in layman's terms what sectioned means as it is possible those outside the UK might not be familiar with the term.

Hi Lefois - responding to your query in the Commons. Assuming that he does have a mental disorder then under English Law he cannot be tried (as I understand it you have to be sane in order to answer the charge of how do you plead - Guilty or Not Guilty- otherwise you are predjudicing the trial and that would cause a mis-trial)
Confused you should be! He has to be certified as either fit for trial or mentally insane - the sectioning order has sent him for 24 hour observation. His partner has now been charged with "Obstructing the Course of Justice" - in laymans terms Lying to the police.
I think he has to be a mental case if indedd he has done the deed.

It seems he was interviewed on TV when the girls first went missing, and expressed his concern in a lucid way? I didn't see that. If this is true, why is he now "drooling and nodding", and generally behaving in a non lucid way? It sounds as if he could be capable of pleading.

Yes he was interviewed and so was she - they appeared to be as you say lucid and "sane" appealing for the perpetrators to come forward or release the girls - it appears that this was either while the girls were still alive or after the murders (Police still trying to establish the time and place)
It does beg the question would they still be alive if there hadn't been the media presence and the police involvement?

The police are having trouble establishing a time and cause of death because that even though the bodies were found less than 2 weeks after they first went missing they were badly decomposed and partially skeletonised according to the Daily Mail today. The article also said that since the Coroner has started investigating that Maxine Carr may well be charged with something more serious that perverting the course of justice.

Ren in answer to your question - I would assume the reason he nodded and drooled was to give the impression of being insane so that he wouldn't have to stand trial, but as has been repeatedly said he was completely lucid whilst talking to the press. It makes me feel physically sick that someone could be that cold and calculating.

My brother and sister were at Upton Park for a football game and my sister said there was not 1 sound during the minute silence, and it WAS very different to other silences she's taken part in and was profoundly sad. This whole thing has just shocked a nation.

In reply to:

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I would assume the reason he nodded and drooled was to give the impression of being insane so that he wouldn't have to stand trial, but as has been repeatedly said he was completely lucid whilst talking to the press. It makes me feel physically sick that someone could be that cold and calculating.

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I always thought that we were innocent until proven guilty in this country.

Neither Maxine Carr nor Ian Huntley has stood trial for these murders yet - and probably won't for some time. This type of speculation from the public and the media is extremely unhelpful under the circumstances.

Not only are we speculating on a case that we know very little about (although it may not seem that way with the wall to wall coverage that there's been) we're also jeopardising the chance of even a remotely fair trial once they come to court. If they are guilty but the judge has to throw the case out due to excessive media and public intrusion we'll only have ourselves to blame.

For a discussion of the seriousness of this see BBC news article.