IAN Huntley chose a ''clever'' spot to dump the girls' bodies and there was a ''substantial possibility'' they would never have been found, the prosecution alleged.

He knew the Lakenheath area well and took advantage of that fact, the trial heard. His father had previously lived at two addresses nearby and his grandmother still lived in the Suffolk town.

Richard Latham QC, said Mr Huntley's choice of a ditch, off a track heading into woodland east of Lakenheath, was an ''ideal place'' to try to get rid of the bodies.

Mr Huntley took the dead girls there on the day they died, but evidence will suggest he returned three days later to set fire to them, Richard Latham QC told the court.

He said: ''We suggest that Mr Huntley knew this area really well. Whoever it was who dumped the bodies would not have set off down that track in the dark unless they knew where they were going and what they would find.

''Whoever dumped the bodies knew it would be a suitable place to put them and they would be unlikely to be caught in the act.''

The badly-burned remains of Holly and Jessica were discovered in the ditch in a wooded area known as Common Drove by three passers-by on August 17 last year.

Mr Latham said: ''If you are in a panic and if you've got two bodies in your car that you are desperate to get rid of, we would suggest there are endless places on the way to Lakenheath that you can dump bodies.''

Referring to the infrequent use of the track, Mr Latham added: ''You will consider just how clever is the place they were left. There was a substantial possibility they would never be found.''

Mr Latham added: ''Think about it, put yourself in the position of someone who has got two bodies in his or her car.

Not only have you got to get away from the road if you can, you've got to find somewhere where the bodies are not going to be discovered immediately in the daylight, and you do not want to be observed doing what you are about to do.

''We suggest Mr Huntley knew that track very well indeed. An ideal place, and he was thinking, when he set off from Soham that evening, thinking quite clearly and calmly, not in a panic, trying to get rid of these bodies as quickly as possible.''