Politics
Who is Ian Huntley’s daughter Samantha Bryan?
KILLER Ian Huntley was sentenced to a minimum of 40 years behind bars for murdering children but it was not his first crime.
Previously he had groomed 15-year-old Katie Bryan, resulting in his long-lost daughter Samantha.
Sammy Bryan has revealed how she discovered her dad was Ian HuntleyReally
Who is Samantha Bryan?
Samantha is the daughter of Huntley’s ex Katie Bryan.
Katie was groomed and abused by evil Huntley when she was just 15-years-old.
Katie left Huntley before Samantha was born in 1998 and went on to marry her new, caring boyfriend, Martin Bryan.
Samantha says: “I feel like because of who I am that people think I am like him. I would definitely say he is evil. And I would definitely say he is a monster.”
How did Samantha Bryan find out about her father Ian Huntley?
Samantha was left horrified when she discovered her father’s identity through a school project.
“We were doing the crime rates in Grimsby and Cleethorpes and – so that’s all I put into Google and the picture of my mum came up so I clicked on it which took me straight to the story,” she told Channel Five.
Katie was “heartbroken” her daughter had learned who her father is.
Previously, she had told Samantha that she had “another dad” who was a “nasty man”, but never went into the whole story until she produced a box of clippings on Samantha’s 18th birthday.
Samantha said: “I wasn’t angry at my mum for not telling me what he’d done because at that age I wouldn’t want my children to know that.
“If he was expecting to get some sort of message from me he’d be lucky to get one.
“He doesn’t even deserve to be known or called my biological father and he will never deserve to be called ‘Dad’.”
Samantha found out the details of Huntley’s crimes when her mum handed her a box of newspaper clippings about what he had done.
She told Really’s The Killer In My Family: “I thought I was ready. About ten mins later [my mum] came back in and asked me how I was feeling and if I was OK and I couldn’t stop crying.
“The paper clippings told me what my mum had gone through, how she’d been abused and raped and things.
“They told me about what she went through when she fell pregnant with me, being pushed down the stairs.
“They told me about the two murders, it told me about what supposedly happened that night to Holly and Jessica.
“Thinking back to it, I cant really say there was anything more upsetting than the other, it was all very hard to read.”
Katie described how she felt there were so many “missed opportunities” to stop Huntley before Soham – and felt regret herself at not going to the police.
She said: “I was powerless under his spell, completely dominated by him.
“I was too young to understand he was controlling me and squashing every ounce of self-esteem I possessed.
“Had I gone to police, perhaps his paedophilia, his violence, would have been uncovered sooner.”
Where is Samantha Bryan now?
Samantha is now approximately 24-years-old and has not publicly commented on her biological father in years.
She has revealed that the Soham killer wrote her letters to try and explain his actions.
He wrote: “I have given an awful lot of thought… about how best to respond, and what, if anything.
“I should say I realise I can’t just say no and expect you to accept that.
“Firstly I truly don’t relish the idea of discussing or you listening to the details of what was unimaginably the most horrendous day of my life.
“Furthermore, I can promise that even if you I did, you wouldn’t feel any better for it. Nor would you feel any closer to understanding. Fifteen years on, I still don’t understand what the hell went wrong that day.”
When did Ian Huntley murder Holly and Jessica?
The 10-year-olds Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells were reported missing on Sunday, August 4, 2002, after going to a family barbecue and heading out to buy sweets.
Huntley invited the girls into his home when they walked by.
Their bodies were found nearly two weeks later, over 10 miles from Soham near an RAF base on August 17, 2002.
Huntley was arrested and he was eventually convicted in 2003 of the girls’ murder and sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment.
After his conviction it was revealed he had been investigated in the past for sexual offences.
It has emerged that Huntley has asked fellow lags at HMP Frankland in Durham to use a feminine version of his name — telling them: “Call me Lian.”
The Sun revealed Huntley and other inmates can buy make-up at the jail, where he was seriously injured after being slashed across the face in 2010.
In February 2018, The Sun also revealed tapes of Huntley moaning about life behind bars and apologising for his crimes.
He called his former girlfriend Maxine Carr a liar in the recordings, but added: “I wish her every happiness.”