Did she watch Jessica die?

They also attacked the police force which led the search for their daughter, saying they were treated as suspects and kept in the dark over the murder investigation.

The couple revealed they were left only with a lock of Holly’s hair, which is now lovingly kept at their home.

Their outpouring of grief and anger came as Huntley, who last week was convicted of killing the 10-year-olds at his home in Soham, Cambridgeshire, revealed his terror at the prospect of life in jail.

Holly’s father Kevin Wells said: "Ian Huntley took our daughter from us and lied and lied and lied. Even after she was dead he desecrated her by burning her body. He left us with no face to stroke, no hand to hold."

He added: "We knew she must have been taken against her will. And I think from that first night, we sensed she was lost to us."

The couple were able to salvage a lock of Holly’s hair, which they keep in a porcelain box in a cabinet in their dining room, but said apart from her skeleton, that was almost all that remained of her.

Kevin, 40, said he was haunted by what happened to the girls at the hands of Huntley, who claimed they died by accident.

"Did he try to imprison one or both? Did he sexually assault one and cause a scuffle? Both Holly and Jessica would have gone to the other’s rescue. Did he rape one of them? Did he rape both? Did he rape them after death?" he said.

The Wells said they were left to find out about important developments in the case from the television news, and felt forced to turn to a medium for information they could not get from detectives.

Both were initially treated as suspects and said they were later asked to point the finger at friends and family members.

The Wells said the medium they turned to for information described Huntley and his girlfriend Maxine Carr, who was jailed for lying to protect her lover, in chilling detail.

He said both girls were dead, and went on to talk of a young man with cropped hair, a "mousey" woman and a small, square, red car. The girls’ bodies were carried to the woodland where they were dumped in a red Ford Fiesta.

Nicola, 36, also paid tribute to her lost child, saying: "Holly was a fantastic daughter, almost too wonderful to explain."

Huntley, who was sentenced to life imprisonment and is currently in London’s Belmarsh jail, said: "I’m going to rot inside this place. I’ll rot in here, I know it. I’ll spend the rest of my life in here. I can’t be with any other prisoner because the screws know I’ll be done in. I’m going to be inside forever and it’ll be torture. I can’t go out to exercise because of the grief other prisoners give me."

He added: "I feel so sorry for Maxine, it’s because of me that she’s inside."