HE STOOD with eyes closed and watched by millions of people - yet in a world of his own as he remembered Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

For Manchester United football star David Beckham, the minute's silence at last night's match with Chelsea had special significance.

The England captain had made a heartfelt appeal for the ten-year-olds' safe return after they went missing earlier this month.

The girls, who disappeared in Soham, Cambridgeshire, and whose bodies were found in Suffolk last weekend, were keen Manchester United fans and were wearing United football shirts bearing Beckham's name when they were last seen.

Last night, the Stamford Bridge stadium in London fell quiet for an impeccably observed silence before the Premiership game.

Further silences will take place at football league games of all levels during the Bank Holiday weekend.

Later, Beckham dedicated his first goal of the Premiership season to the girls.

He said: "To see the two little girls with my shirt on was pretty nice and I'm sure the whole game is dedicated to the two girls tonight."

Earlier in the day, an inquest heard that the girls were killed then taken to woodland and dumped in a ditch.

The inquest was told that the girlfriend of the man accused of the double murder could face "further serious charges".

Maxine Carr, 25, is in custody charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice.

South and West Cambridgeshire Coroner David Morris heard that the girls' bodies were found in a "severely decomposed and skeletonised" state.

They almost certainly had not died at the remote spot near Lakenheath, Suffolk, where they were found.

Initial post-mortem examinations found the cause of death was "unascertainable due to decomposition".

Maxine Carr's boyfriend, college caretaker Ian Huntley, 28, has been charged with two counts of murder and detained at Rampton Hospital.