LONDON, Aug 21 (AFP) - Ian Huntley, charged with the murders of schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, may never stand trial, the British press said Wednesday after he was sectioned at a mental hospital.

In a dramatic twist to a case that has gripped the nation, Huntley was taken to Rampton high-security mental hospital in the early hours of Tuesday morning shortly before being handed the double murder charge.

Police said that the school caretaker, 28, who was due to appear in Peterborough Magistrates Court in central England on Wednesday, would only be in court "when he is deemed fit to attend."

"Will he (Huntley) ever stand trial?" asked The Daily Mail front page which said that he could be considered unfit to stand trial because of his psychiatric state.

The paper also raised the possibility that Huntley could stand trial but enter a defence of insanity.

"If he were found not guilty on that basis, he could nonetheless be locked up indefinitely for psychiatric treatment but could then be released if he responded to treatment," the paper added.

Huntley's girlfriend, 25-year-old Maxine Carr -- a former teaching assistant in the girls' class -- will be in Peterborough court on Wednesday morning to face a charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice, police said.

Security has been stepped up around the courtroom in case of any actions by vigilantes, the press reported.

Section Two of the 1983 Mental Health Act, under which Huntley is being detained in Rampton, allows a patient to be held for up to 28 days to enable a full psychiatric assessment to be made.

However, doctors treating the patient can then extend this period to to six months and then renew it for a further six.

"Subsequent year-long renewals can be sought, theoretically prolonging the process indefinitely," said The Daily Telegraph.

But, after the initial 28 days, lawyers can seek a High Court order to allow a jury to decide if a patient is fit to stand trial, the paper added.

The Times raised two previous cases of "sectioning" as examples.

Doraj Miah, a 19-year-old from East London, was arrested by Scotland Yard officers in June for the murder of Hazel Prager on a golf course in Essex, east England, the paper said.

He was committed to hospital for 28 days and this has now been extended to six months.

David Copeland, the Soho pub bomber, was fit to be charged and then had to be committed to Broadmoor mental hospital while on remand. He was held in hospital for months until psychiatrists decided he could appear in court.

Copeland, 26, is now serving six life sentences after being convicted of murder in June 2000 at the Old Bailey in London.

Huntley and Carr were arrested on suspicion of murder on Saturday a few hours before the bodies of 10-year-old Holly and Jessica were discovered in woods near their hometown of Soham, in Cambridgeshire, 13 days after they disappeared.

The disappearance of Holly and Jessica on August 4 triggered one of the biggest missing persons' investigations in British criminal history.

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