The daughter of Soham killer Ian Huntley has begged to meet him for the first time – 20 years after he was jailed for the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.
Samantha Bryan, 25, wrote, asking for a face-to-face prison meeting, with a powerful request: “If my existence means anything to you, please finally reveal the whole truth about Holly and Jessica’s murder. It’s time for everyone to get some peace.”
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Huntley’s daughter Samantha Bryan is haunted by her past and wants the killer to reveal the whole story before she dies Credit: Richard Walker
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Killer Huntley showed no remorse and hid the truth about the death Credit: Rex Features
School janitor Huntley continually fails to give grieving families the closure they need
He claimed in court that both 10-year-olds had died accidentally, lying that Holly had drowned in his bathtub and that he had accidentally suffocated Jessica while trying to stifle her screams.
However, in tapes recorded behind bars in 2018, the beast admitted to deliberately killing Jessica to prevent her from raising the alarm.
He still insisted that Holly’s death was an accident.
Samantha hopes Huntley will now finally find out exactly what happened to the girls after he lured them to his house at around 6.30pm on August 4, 2002 – the day they were killed – so she can tell their devastated parents who have lived in anxiety.
She lives in fear that Huntley, 49, will take his secrets to his grave after suffering a series of health problems, assaults in prison and suicide attempts behind bars as he reaches half of his minimum 40-year sentence.
In an exclusive interview, Samantha said: “I wrote to my biological father Ian Huntley and asked to meet him for the first time.
“I beg him to find the courage to finally tell the truth. I asked to meet face to face so that he could tell me in his own words.”
It wasn’t until the age of 14 that Samantha accidentally discovered that the child’s killer was her father.
At the age of 23, he groomed her mother, Katie, who was then 15, and made her pregnant. They separated before the child was born, and she later married.
Since Samantha found out, she says: “I am haunted by the deaths of Holly and Jessica.
“I had counseling and it affected everything from my work to my relationships. I suffered from constant nightmares.
“People still stop me in the street and say ‘Your father is a monster’ or ‘I know who your dad is’, so I have nothing to lose if I meet him.
“He became a specter, like the Yorkshire Ripper or Fred West.
“But you have to face your demons.”
Huntley lied at the trial and never revealed what really happened, so the horrific tragedy that shocked the nation was not over.
Samantha, who lives in Cleethorpes, Lincs, and is training to be an administrator, said: “I want to know for myself if he feels any remorse.
“The Faceless Demon”
“I want him to tell the truth, so I can get this out to Holly and Jessica’s families because they are very much on my mind – more than a lot of people would ever realize.
“I feel the deepest sadness caused by knowing that their families were never given the truth.
“I hope he finds it in his heart to open up. I want to know what he would say when I sit in front of him, if given that opportunity.
“Nothing can ever change what happened. There is absolutely no forgiveness. But because he’s had health problems and I’ve read about assaults in prison, I’m afraid he might take his secrets to his grave, like the Yorkshire Ripper or Myra Hindley.”
Huntley was convicted of two murders after pleading not guilty.
His fiancée at the time, Maxine Carr, a teaching assistant at Holly and Jessica’s school in the Cambridgeshire town, gave him a false alibi.
She was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for perverting the course of justice and was given a new identity upon her release.
Huntley is being held at HMP Frankland in Durham and will not be considered for release until he is 68.
In 2010, armed robber Damien Fowkes slashed Huntley’s throat in Frankland, putting him in hospital, and in 2005, murderer Mark Hobson doused him with boiling water in Wakefield Prison.
Samantha said: “I often worry that something will happen to him and that no one will ever get closure.”
Huntley seduced her mother Katie when she was a schoolgirl in Grimsby.
He also raped her, forced her to eat cat food, cut off her hair and threw her down a flight of stairs while she was pregnant.
‘I asked to meet him face to face. People stop me on the street and say: Your dad is a monster. . . so I have nothing to lose by meeting him’.
Samantha Bryan
As a newborn, Samantha needed emergency open-heart surgery.
Her family always believed it was because of the Huntley ordeals her mother went through.
She said: “Sometimes, when I look at my scar, I think about what my mother went through.
“She told me that I saved her, because being pregnant with me gave her the strength to break free.
“He did terrible, unspeakable things to her. I want him to apologize for that. To mean that there is remorse would mean something.”
Samantha, who is single, says Huntley’s daughter’s notoriety has taken a toll on her mental health.
She said: “For years I have been haunted by the fear that a faceless demon will climb through my bedroom window at night or come and find me, or try to kill me when I am all alone.
“But the monster walking through my dreams was no figment of my imagination. He was my nightmare in real life. When all is quiet in the dead of night, the thought of him creeps into my mind, raising a terrible hope that one day he will find me.
“My last nightmare was on Friday night. His face is usually pretty blurry, but this time it was vivid and he was yelling.
“He was trying to break into my nana’s house. I woke up and I was very sick. I thought, ‘Oh my God, I hope it never comes out’.”
Now Samantha believes that meeting Huntley will help her face her demons, and perhaps offer grieving families closure.
She said: “I don’t feel like I’ve fully processed what happened and I’m hoping that sitting in front of him might allow me to shake off the nightmares and get on with my life.”
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Victims Jessica Chapman and her friend Holly Wells Credit: Rex
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Maxine Carr gave the killer Huntley a false alibi Credit: Sky
Samantha wants to emphasize that she does not consider her suffering to be similar to that of Holly and Jessica’s parents.
She said: “I do not compare my pain in any way to their unimaginable pain, but people have often used my father’s crimes against me over the years.
“I’ve even had people confront me in the street asking if my mom is Maxine Carr. The main comment I got was ‘The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree’, which always struck a chord with me as I am the complete opposite.
“The last time someone yelled at me was in January, ‘Oh, are you Huntley’s daughter?’ I just kept walking.”
Samantha is adamant that her father should die in prison.
She added: “He has now reached half his sentence, but Holly and Jessica have been deprived of their futures, as have their families.
“I don’t think he should be released. But he should do the right thing to bring some peace to those who are in agony every day wondering what happened.”
To this day, Samantha’s family keeps a brown cardboard box with newspaper clippings covering Huntley’s arrest and trial.
She will never forget the shock of discovering the true identity of her biological father.
“Box of Nightmares”
At the age of 14, during school hours, she was Googling local crimes and following up when she saw her picture in an online article.
Samantha said: “I clicked on it and recognized the dress I was wearing and remembered that day. The story said I was Ian Huntley’s daughter. I ran out of class, home to my mother and she confirmed that it was true. But she told me that she would never let him hurt me and that she would never go out.”
When Samantha came of age, Katie decided she needed to know the whole story.
Samantha said: “Two weeks after my 18th birthday my mum called me into her bedroom, motioning for me to sit next to her on her bed.
“She handed me a box that was taped up and said, ‘Sammy, this is what I call a nightmare box.
“I kept all of this because I knew that one day you would have to know everything. The only way I managed to deal with it was to try as hard as I could to shut down all memories of him.’ Inside were newspaper clippings, reporting every horrific detail of Huntley’s crimes and also what he did to my mom.
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In Samantha’s letter to the killer, Huntley asks if he will meet her Credit: Richard Walker
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Samantha’s closing line reads: ‘It’s time for everyone to get some peace and closure’ Credit: Richard Walker
“I read them all. I cried until I couldn’t cry anymore.
“Then I put the lid back on the box, taped it up and put it back under her bed.
“Today I try not to read things about him, or I turn it off if it’s on TV. I fear parole will be considered one day.
“One day I may become a mother myself and I want to be able to tell my daughter that even though there is a monster in the family, he met me and told the truth and expressed deep remorse.
“Maybe it’s a pipe dream to expect that to happen – but it’s a dream I’m willing to try.”
He was lured into the house by a monster
By Sarah Arnold
THE DISAPPEARANCE and murders of 10-year-old schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman are crimes that have shocked the nation.
The two best friends went missing in Soham, Cambs, on August 4, 2002, after going to buy sweets during a family barbecue.
The pair were lured to school caretaker Huntley’s home after he claimed his partner Maxine Carr, who worked at the girls’ school, was in possession.
Then he killed them in cold blood.
Pictures of the missing girls’ faces were soon plastered all over national and local newspapers, and during a desperate nationwide appeal to find them, Huntley gave TV interviews and took part in searches.
Former classroom assistant Carr gave Huntley a false alibi that she stuck to for two weeks – until it emerged she was in a nightclub with another man at the time.
The remains of Holly and Jessica were discovered in a ditch at an air base 14 miles away in Mildenhall, Suffolk, on 17 August 2002.
Huntley was convicted of the girls’ murders in 2003 and is serving two life sentences at the high-security HMP Frankland facility in Durham.
His release will not be considered until 2042.
Carr was jailed for perverting the course of justice and was released in 2004 with a new identity.
In March 2020, it was reported that she had gone into hiding after her new identity was revealed.
Categories: Optical Illusion
Source: HIS Education