Ian Huntley's horrific crimes have been put into the primetime TV spotlight this week, thanks to Channel 5 true crime drama Maxine, 20 years after he murdered school girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.
It was in August 2002 that the two 10-year-olds went missing after a barbecue, with their frantic families contacting police after they failed to return. After police were contacted and a huge search was launched, media descended on the girl's quiet hometown of Soham in East Cambridgeshire as Holly and Jessica's disappearance dominated local and national news.
Huntley, who was working as a caretaker at Soham College at the time, was one of the locals who gave an interview to TV reporters, when all along, he had already killed the innocent youngsters. Huntley was given an alibi by then girlfriend Maxine Carr, who claimed she in the house with Ian when Holly and Jessica spoke to him outside on the night they went missing. That was a lie as she was actually in Grimsby at the time and Huntley was eventually convicted after suspicions were raised and the girls' destroyed Manchester United tops were found in a bin in the college.
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The first episode of Maxine saw Carr assure Huntley she'd give him an alibi, before tensions escalated between the pair in Tuesday's second part. The third and final episode, which will go out at 9pm on Channel 5 on Wednesday, October 12, sees the Ian charged with abduction and murder, while Carr is remanded in custody for conspiring to pervert the course of justice.
Where is Ian Huntley now?
Huntley was convicted convicted of the murders of Holly and Jessica on December 17 2003 and sentenced to two terms of ,life imprisonment, with the High Court later imposing a minimum term of 40 years.
Huntley is now 48 and the order imposed on him means he can't be released from prison any sooner than 2042, by which point he will be 68-years-old. He is behind bars at the HMP Frankland Prison in Durham. Dubbed the 'house of horrors' due to its notorious inmates, it is also home to Levi Bellfield, Michael Stone and Sean Mercer, the teenager who killed youngster Rhys Jones, the focus of ITV true crime drama Little Boy Blue.
Huntley was originally sent to prison in Wakefield, where he was scalded with boiling water by convicted spree killer Mark Hobson. Once at Frankland prison, armed robber Damien Fowkes attacked Huntley, with him treated in hospital for his injuries. Huntley also had a run-in with Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe in 2017, with Sutcliffe, who died in 2020, reportedly calling him a 'child killing b*****d'.
In 2019, it was reported that Huntley kicked a prison officer at HMP Frankland and was sent to solitary twice within days and had his privileges were stripped back to the lowest for offenders.
He was banned from buying his favourite fish and chip suppers and other pricier canteen options, lost the painting job, and his right to watch TV.
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