The daughter of Soham murderer Ian Huntley has said that she was “over the moon” to find out that he had died – and said his ashes should be flushed down the toilet.
Samantha Bryan said, after his death: “I felt relieved. I didn’t cry. I smiled. I was over the moon to be honest.”
Huntley died in hospital on Saturday after he was attacked in the workshop of a maximum security prison by an inmate.
The 52-year-old former school caretaker suffered severe brain trauma in the attack at HMP Frankland, Durham on 26 February.
Huntley was convicted for the 2002 murder of 10-year-old schoolgirls Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells in Soham, Cambridgeshire, in a case that shocked the nation. The girls had left a family barbecue to buy sweets before they were murdered by Huntley.
Samantha Bryan is the only child of Huntley. Her mother, Katie Bryan, had been in a relationship with Huntley when she was 15 before becoming pregnant at 16 and leaving the relationship.
According to The Sun, Samantha, 27, found out who her father was while researching for a school crime project when she was 14.
After his death, she told the paper: “I’m just glad he’s gone. It wasn’t as much of a shock as when I heard last week he’d been terribly injured as I thought he’d died then.
“So I was kind of expecting this call. But at the same time it is a shock to be told your biological father is dead. He’s nothing to me apart from biology”.
She added: “Over the years I’ve cried many times over the thought of Holly and Jessica and what their family have gone through. I don’t ever want Holly and Jessica to ever be forgotten.”
Huntley, one of Britain’s most reviled killers, was jailed for life with a minimum 40-year tariff in December 2003. Huntley lured Holly and Jessica into his home in Soham, Cambridgeshire, where he lived with Maxine Carr, a teaching assistant at the girls’ school.
With Carr away for the weekend, Huntley murdered the girls and dumped their bodies in a ditch 10 miles away. Their disappearance sparked a search involving hundreds of police officers.
As the nation’s media descended on Soham to report on the disappearances, Huntley gave interviews to journalists, with one reporter Brian Farmer from the Press Association becoming so concerned afterwards that he went to the police.
During his trial at the Old Bailey, Huntley tried to convince the jury that Holly had suffered a nosebleed and that she drowned in the bath, and he killed Jessica as he tried to silence her screams.
They did not believe him and he was convicted of two counts of murder.
A spokesperson for Durham Constabulary said that the police investigation into the circumstances of Huntley’s death was ongoing and a file was being prepared for the Crown Prosecution Service for the consideration of charges.
