Ian Huntley’s daughter Samantha Bryan has refused to be involved in any way with the Soham murderer’s funeral – she has reportedly been left ‘disgusted’ after police asked her questions
Huntley’s daughter Samantha Bryan has refused to be involved in any way with the monster’s funeral(Image: Sunday Mirror)
The daughter of Soham murderer Ian Huntley was left ‘disgusted’ after police asked if she wanted to contribute towards his funeral.
Ian Huntley became one of the UK’s most notorious murderers after he was convicted for killing ten-year-old best friends Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells in his home in Soham, Cambridgeshire on August 4, 2002. The 52-year-old was serving a life sentence, with a minimum term of 40 years.
Throughout his time behind bars he was subject to a number of brutal attacks. In September 2005, the killer was scalded with boiling water whilst detained at HMP Wakefield in Yorkshire. Five years later, in 2010, Huntley was rushed to the University Hospital of North Durham after suffering a slash wound to the throat from a makeshift weapon.
Soham Killer Ian Huntley was attacked a number of times during his sentence(Image: Andy Stenning/Daily Mirror)
Damien Fowkes, 36, admitted to the attempted murder of Huntley, as well as the killing of fellow inmate Colin Hatch, a paedophile and child murderer, at Full Sutton Prison, near York. Fowkes inflicted a seven-inch wound on Huntley’s neck using a razor blade melted onto a piece of plastic cutlery. It is reported that Fowkes turned to a prison officer and asked: “Is he dead? I hope so.”
He was serving at HMP Frankland in Durham when he was last attcked, an assault that proved fatal. He was found in a pool of blood after being attacked with a metal bar but died in hospital a few days later on March 7. The number one suspect has been named as triple killer Anthony Russell.
Huntley sustained severe injuries in the prison attack – including skull fractures, brain damage and a broken jaw. His grim final days were spent in a medically induced coma, with a ventilator to help him breathe. His mother Lynda Richards, who snuck in to visit her dying son, apparently couldn’t recognise Huntley after the attack.
Now, his daughter Samantha, told The Sun: “I had nothing to do with him in life and now I want nothing to do with him in death. I don’t want to pay for any funeral and I wouldn’t want to go to a funeral for him.”
She said she met two police officers on March 17, ten days after Huntley — who she never met — died. During the 30-minute meeting, she told them she did not want any involvement in his funeral or to receive his ashes.
She said: “They asked if I wanted to take on the responsibility, purely because I am his biological daughter. They mentioned if I did there would be quite a bill involved. I said ‘no’. He does not deserve the dignity of a funeral after what he did. I don’t want any involvement.”
What happens to Ian Huntley’s estate
Paul Hewitt, a legal expert and partner in the trust, estate and inheritance disputes team at Withers, tells the Mirror that managing financial and estate matters whilst inside can be pretty complicated.
“Prisoners, like anybody else who is unable to directly manage their affairs, will have to entrust whatever they have to family members or advisors to look after,” he explains, about any wealth someone like Huntley might have when they are imprisoned for life.
He adds that “It can be very difficult where the person in prison is trying to deal with financial matters to access their adviser.”
