Ms Maxine Carr turned on her ex-lover at his Old Bailey murder trial today by saying: "I'm not going to be blamed for what that thing in the box has done to me or those children."
In a moment of extraordinary drama, Ms Carr raised her right hand and pointed across the packed courtroom to where Mr Ian Huntley stood in the dock, accused of murdering 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.
Ms Carr, who admits she lied to protect him, told the court: "The children died, he killed those children."
She said: "I don't need to put my position in a better light. I know exactly what I have done, sir.
"I have come in this witness box to say what I have done and I'm not going to be blamed for what that thing in that box has done to me or those children."
Ms Carr admitted she lied to police to protect her then fiancé but insisted she had believed him when he told her that the young friends had left their house alive.
She claimed that she was "scared" of Mr Huntley, who had a "controlling attitude" towards her.
Ms Carr (26) a former classroom assistant in Holly and Jessica's class, has admitted lying to protect her ex-lover but denies conspiring to pervert the course of justice and two counts of assisting an offender.
Mr Huntley (29) a former caretaker at Soham Village College, denies the double child murder on Sunday August 4th last year but has admitted a single charge of conspiring to pervert the course of justice.
The jury has heard he admits Holly died accidentally in his bath and that he killed Jessica as he tried to silence her screams, although he insists he did not mean to kill her.
He bundled their bodies into his car, dumped them in the remote ditch where they were found 13 days later, cut off their clothes and torched their corpses.