Ian Huntley’s daughter says she wants to meet the serial killer for one important reason
Ian Huntley’s daughter Samantha Bryan, 25, says she wants to meet the Soham murderer for the first time and find out the full truth about the deaths of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman
Ian Huntley(PA)
Ian Huntley’s daughter wants to meet the Soham murderer for the first time and find out the truth about his crimes, it has been reported. Samantha Bryan, 25, has asked for a meeting in prison with Huntley who killed Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman. The disappearance of the schoolchildren sent shockwaves across the country and saw more than 400 police officers descend on the sleepy Cambridgeshire town of Soham.
They worked around the clock alongside local volunteers in a bid to find the two 10-year-old best friends, who went missing from a family barbecue in August 2002.
And it was the school caretaker, Huntley[1], who joined in on the search and spoke to the press about last seeing the two girls outside his house, who turned out to be hiding a dark secret – he was their murderer. Now more than 20 years on, his daughter wants to meet him for the first time and find out what happened.
Samantha Bryan(Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
“If my existence means anything to you, I’m pleading with you to finally reveal the whole truth about the murders of Holly and Jessica. It’s time that everyone was given some peace,” she has asked him, reported The Sun.[2] Huntley so far has not given the full details to the grieving families and in court claimed that the two girls had died as a result of accidents.
He alleged Holly drowned in his bath and he suffocated Jessica unintentionally to stop her from screaming. Holly and Jessica left their family party in search of sweets from the vending machine at the local leisure centre, and on their way back, walked past where Huntley lived on-site in the school’s caretaker residence. He spotted the pair and lured them into his house before murdering them.
He hid their bodies in an irrigated ditch close to the RAF base about 10 miles from their home.
Jessica Chapman (left) and her best friend Holly Wells(PA)
Samantha reportedly said: “I have written to my biological father Ian Huntley and asked to meet him for the first time. I’m begging him to find the courage to finally tell the truth. I have asked to meet face to face so he can tell me in his own words.”
Samantha found out by accident, when she was 14. that Huntley was her father. Her mother Ketie had been 15 when she had a relationship with Huntley who was 23 at the time. She said: “I have been haunted by the death of Holly and Jessica.
I’ve had counselling and it has affected everything from my jobs to relationships. I have suffered constant nightmares. “People still stop me in the street and say, ‘Your father is a monster’ or ‘I know who your dad is’, so by meeting him I have nothing to lose.
He has become a bogeyman, like the Yorkshire Ripper or Fred West.
But you have to confront your demons.” Huntley, who will not be considered for release until 2042 at the earliest, now resides in HMP Frankland, in Durham.