BRITAIN: British police said yesterday they had recovered clothes they believe were worn by 10-year-old Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman the day they disappeared three weeks ago.
"I can confirm that certain items of clothing believed to have been worn by Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells when they were reported missing have been found by police," a police spokesman said.
However, he did not say when, where or in what state the clothes were found.
The News of the World newspaper reported that police had recovered Manchester United football jerseys and shoes worn by the girls when they went missing on August 4th from their hometown of Soham, near Cambridge.
The paper said the clothes had been found before the decomposed bodies of the girls were found on August 17th in a ditch in woodlands outside a US air base at Lakenheath, a few miles from Soham.
It cited an unnamed police officer as saying the discovery of the clothes had marked a "significant development" in the case.
The police spokesman refused to confirm the report.
Meanwhile, fears are rising that media coverage of the crime which stunned Britain could jeopardise a trial of the girls' alleged killer. Police have charged Mr Ian Huntley (28), a former caretaker at the girls' school, with their murders. He is being held in a high-security psychiatric hospital.
His girlfriend, Ms Maxine Carr (25), is accused of covering up the crime.
Newspapers have carried many stories about both, much of it intimate detail about their lives. "Much of this coverage has clearly been in breach of the Contempt of Court Act," the Sunday Telegraph newspaper quoted a senior police officer as saying.
The newspaper said Ms Carr's lawyers believed she may not be able to receive a fair trial.
Under British law, journalists cannot write or publicise anything which risks a "substantial risk of serious prejudice" to a fair trial after a suspect is arrested.
The Observer newspaper said the government's top lawyer, Attorney General Lord Goldsmith, has been asked by the Crown Prosecution Service - which decides whether cases should be prosecuted in court - to look at the media coverage to judge whether it may prejudice a trial.
The coroner conducting the inquest on the bodies made veiled criticism of newspaper reports last week, urging the government to act.
Mr David Morris asked Home Secretary Mr David Blunkett to conduct a review into lessons that could be learned "to minimise the trauma caused not only to the families involved and the community in which they live, but also to the ability of the police to lead an unfettered investigation into such tragedies".
The government is already poised to make payments to trial witnesses by the media a criminal offence.