The shouts of the boys in the playground drifted on the wind that ruffled a weeping willow in the staff car park; the only other sound was the surprisingly quiet moan of an American air force transporter jet rising into the sky from one of the bases nearby Soham was getting on with its life. Now we know their bodies were lying in a ditch ­ and the school caretaker is the man accused of murdering them.So on Friday I retraced that fateful route as Ian Huntley stood trial in an oak-panelled court room 70 miles away at the Old Bailey in London He was not there Huntley, who pleaded not guilty to murder, was ill that day. Boys were chasing a football in the playground of Soham Village School on Friday, a short miskick from the stripped, detached house, but the former schoolmates will be given the day off tomorrow when the lawyers and jurors arrive. Many of the 9,000 locals will leave before police cordons seal off the streets "We've had enough," said a businessman.

"Especially the children."I first walked through the village of Soham in August last year, six days after the girls disappeared, when the whole country seemed to be looking, and worrying, for them. Holly and Jessica were only missing and we all so wanted them to be found. It was a case that chilled the heart of every parent: two 10-year-olds slip out of the house during a barbecue, take a walk, buy some sweets and are never seen again. The parents made tearful appeals, the police sought to speak directly to their "abductor" through the television cameras, there were press conferences every day at the school. It creates a fear culture and this can beget even more problems.".

The house in which Holly and Jessica died has been gutted. The gardens have been dug up, the fixtures, fittings and furniture taken away in pursuit of evidence, so the caretaker's cottage looks like a bare-boned new build. The steel cladding that hid the interior from tourists has been replaced with perspex sheeting, allowing a view right into the empty rooms. The only remaining decoration is black and yellow police tape. but it's a great tragedy when you start making schools into fortresses. Restorative justice is a very hard-edged approach, not a soft option, and it can be used to reduce exclusions by keeping children in schools and making them confront their behaviour."However, Sir Charles warned that schools should not be turned into "fortresses" and that children should not be "vilified" as criminals."Chief constables think putting officers in schools is a good use of police resources, and there is no doubt that there has been a strong impact on school behaviour in terms of crime and of carrying weapons," said Sir Charles, the former chief constable of Thames Valley police."I think we must not over-react Carrying knives is a serious business ... Look at the cover of The Insider: The Private Diaries of Piers Morgan, and you'll find Mrs Blair apparently flirting with the rapscallionly former editor.