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The market town of Soham was shaken to its core by the murder of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in August 2002. Just off the A142 between Ely and Newmarket, Soham was a relatively little-known place before evil child-killer Ian Huntley robbed the girls of their lives and families of their loved ones.

The former school caretaker, who was assaulted on Thursday at HMP Frankland in County Durham, killed the girls after they left a family barbecue to buy sweets in the town. Soham locals hoped for the best when the girls were reported missing, but reeled in shock when Holly and Jessica's bodies were found in a ditch near an airbase at Mildenhall, Suffolk, after a two-week search.

For townspeople, it must have felt like Soham was under siege as the world's media moved in and police descended on the once sleepy town.

Sarah Clark told the Evening Standard that a "palpable sense of shock" engulfed the place, which she said before August 4, 2002, had been noticed by no one.

She recalled how children stayed indoors despite it being the summer holidays and the whole town was "unnervingly quiet".

When it emerged that the girls' bodies had been found, locals were left shell-shocked as they tried to make sense of what had happened.

Suspicions about Huntley were raised by some journalists after he gave a number of interviews to the press.

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Brian Farmer, a reporter with the Press Association, interviewed Huntley and his girlfriend, Maxine Carr, who was a teaching assistant at the girls' school.

Mr Farmer described Huntley as appearing agitated and emotional, jumping in to answer a question he had directed at Carr about stranger danger.

The reporter told the BBC: "He said that he thought Holly would probably get in the car and quietly go, but Jessica wouldn't. She'd put up a real fight and a real struggle."

"I think the way he described how Holly and Jessica would react is exactly how they did react. He knew how they'd react because that's how they reacted when he killed them."

Huntley, now aged 52, was eventually arrested and charged with the girls' murders. He claimed during his trial at the Old Bailey in 2003 that the girls went inside his house because Holly had a nosebleed.

The killer said in his testimony that Holly drowned in the bath and he killed Jessica as he tried to silence her screams, but jurors concluded he was lying.

He was sentenced to life for murder while Carr, who now lives under a new identity, served 21 months for perverting the course of justice for giving Huntley a false alibi.

Life in Soham had carried on before Huntley's trial drew attention back to the town, which was visited as part of the court case.

Townsfolk were said to be reluctant to discuss what happened in public, but in a town of its size it was not hard to know someone who knew someone connected to what happened.

Ms Clark later told the Standard that Soham had been "irrevocably" changed by what happened in August 2002, adding: "It's a town that has lost its innocence."