Soham murders
Encyclopedia
The Soham murders was an English
murder
case in 2002 of two 10-year-old girls in the village of Soham
, Cambridgeshire.
The victims were Holly Marie Wells and Jessica Aimee Chapman. On 4 August 2002, after going out to buy some sweets, the girls passed the home of local school caretaker
Ian Kevin Huntley, who called them into his house and then murdered them, apparently in a fit of rage after an argument with his girlfriend.
Huntley disposed of the girls' bodies near RAF Lakenheath
in Suffolk. In December 2003 he was convicted of two counts of murder
and sentenced to life imprisonment
. His girlfriend, Maxine Carr, who had provided Huntley with a false alibi
, served 21 months in prison for perverting the course of justice
.
Ian Huntley, in College Close. Huntley saw the girls and asked them to come into his house. He said that his girlfriend, Maxine Carr, was in the house too, but she had in fact gone to visit family in Grimsby
, Lincolnshire. Shortly after the girls entered his house, Huntley murdered them.
Huntley's reasons for killing Wells and Chapman may never be known, but minutes before seeing them he had slammed the telephone down on Carr following a furious argument; Huntley had allegedly suspected Carr of cheating on him. The police suspected that Huntley killed the girls in a fit of jealous rage. Huntley's mother also said this. The police found no evidence of premeditation.
replica football shirts and a physical description of each of them, describing them as "white, about 4 ft 6 in tall and slim".
Meanwhile, Huntley appeared in television interviews on Sky News
and the BBC's regional news programme Look East, speaking of the shock in the local community.
The girls' bodies were found near the perimeter fence of RAF Lakenheath
in Suffolk
, on 17 August 2002. Twelve hours later, their clothing was discovered in the grounds of Soham Village College and Huntley was arrested. The girls had been missing for 13 days when their bodies were found, with police stating that both corpses were "severely decomposed
and partially skeleton
ised". Huntley had set them alight in a bid to destroy forensic evidence.
The school caretaker was charged with two counts of murder
on 20 August 2002 and detained at Rampton Secure Hospital
, Nottinghamshire, under Section 48 of the Mental Health Act
, where his mental state was assessed to determine whether he suffered from mental illness and whether he was fit to stand trial. Consultant psychiatrist
Dr. Christopher Clark carried out the assessment and stated:
This left Huntley facing life imprisonment if a jury could be convinced of his guilt. A judge ruled on 8 October 2002 that he was therefore fit to stand trial. Huntley was subsequently moved to Woodhill prison
in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, where he attempted suicide
on 9 June 2003 by taking 29 antidepressant
s which he had stashed in his cell. There were fears that Huntley could die as a result of the overdose, but within 48 hours he was back in prison and was later transferred to Belmarsh prison
in London.
, Lincolnshire, on 31 January 1974, the first son of Kevin and Linda Huntley. He spent two months living in the village of Hopton-on-Sea
, Norfolk, and also spent time living in Scunthorpe
, north Lincolnshire.
In February 1999, Huntley (then aged 25) met 22-year-old Maxine Carr at Hollywood's nightclub in Grimsby town centre. She later moved in with him at his flat in Barton-upon-Humber
, a small town on the southern banks of the River Humber. Carr found a job packing fish at the local fish processing factory while Huntley worked as a barman. He also travelled to Cambridgeshire
on his days off to help his father who was now working as a school caretaker in the village of Littleport
near Ely
.
In September 2001 Huntley applied for the position of caretaker at Soham Village College
, a secondary school in a small town between Newmarket and Ely. The job had become vacant after the previous caretaker was dismissed for having an inappropriate relationship with a female pupil. Huntley was accepted for the post and began work on 26 November 2001.
opened at the Old Bailey
in London on 5 November 2003. He was charged with two counts of murder
. The families of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were present for the duration.
Huntley admitted that the girls had died in his house; he claimed that he accidentally knocked Wells into the bath while helping her control a nosebleed, and this caused her to drown. Chapman witnessed this and he claimed that he accidentally suffocated
her while attempting to stifle her screaming. By the time he realised what he was doing, it was too late to save either of them. Based on this evidence, he admitted manslaughter
.
The jury
rejected his claims that the girls had died accidentally and, on 17 December 2003, returned a majority verdict of guilty on both counts of murder. Huntley was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum tariff to be decided by the Lord Chief Justice
at a later date.
After Huntley was convicted, it was revealed that he had been investigated in the past for sexual offences
and burglary
, but had still been allowed to work in a school as none of these investigations had resulted in a conviction.
In August 1995, when Huntley was 21 years old, a joint-investigation was launched by police and social services in Grimsby, after a 15-year-old girl admitted that she had been having sex with Huntley. Police did not pursue the case against Huntley in accordance with the girl's wishes.
In March 1996, Huntley was charged in connection with a burglary at a Grimsby house which took place on 15 November 1995, when he and an accomplice allegedly stole electrical goods, jewellery and cash. The case reached court and was ordered to lie on file. Also in March 1996, Huntley was once again investigated over allegations of having sex with an underage girl, but again he was not charged.
A month later, Huntley was investigated once again over allegations of underage sex
, but this allegation too did not result in a charge. The same outcome occurred the following month when he was investigated over allegations of having sex with a 13-year-old girl.
In April 1998, Huntley was arrested on suspicion of raping
a woman. He admitted having sex with the woman but claimed it was consensual. The police decided not to charge Huntley.
A month later, Huntley was charged with rape and remanded in custody after an 18-year-old Grimsby woman claimed to have been raped by him on her way home from a nightclub in the town. The charge was dropped a week later after the Crown Prosecution Service
examined CCTV images from the nightclub and determined that there was no chance of a conviction.
In July 1998, Huntley was investigated by the police on allegations that he indecently assaulted an 11-year-old girl in September 1997. However, he was never charged. He was investigated over allegations of rape on a 17-year-old woman in February 1999, but no charges were made against him.
The final allegation came in July 1999, when a woman was raped and Huntley – by now regarded by police as a suspected serial sex offender – was interviewed. He supplied a DNA
sample and had an alibi
provided by Maxine Carr to assert his innocence. The woman subsequently said that Huntley was not the rapist. This was the only case where the victim had not identified or named Huntley as the attacker.
Home Secretary
David Blunkett
ordered an inquiry into these revelations, chaired by Sir Michael Bichard, and later ordered the suspension of David Westwood
, Chief of Humberside Police
. The inquiry criticised Humberside Police for deleting information relating to previous allegations against Huntley and criticised Cambridgeshire Constabulary
for not following vetting guidelines. An added complication in the vetting procedures was the fact that Huntley had applied for the caretaker's job under the name of Ian Nixon, although he did state on the application form that he was once known as Ian Huntley. It is believed that Humberside Police either did not check under the name Huntley on the police computer — if they had then they would have discovered a burglary charge left on file — or did not check either name.
and on 29 September 2005 his minimum term was decided. On this date, the High Court
announced that Huntley must remain in prison until he has served at least 40 years; a minimum term which will not allow him to be released until at least 2042, by which time he will be 68 years old. In setting this minimum term, Mr. Justice Moses stated: "The order I make offers little or no hope of the defendant's eventual release."
Huntley was among the last of more than 500 life sentence prisoners waiting to have minimum terms set by the Lord Chief Justice after the Home Secretary's tariff-setting procedures were declared illegal. Anyone who committed a murder after 18 December 2003 would have a minimum term set by the trial judge.
to police for Huntley, claiming to have been with him at the time of the murders when she was in Grimsby
. She was charged with perverting the course of justice
and assisting an offender. She pleaded guilty to the first charge and not guilty to the second.
Her failure to expose Huntley's lies in the early stages of the investigation (before either of them was arrested) meant that police initially eliminated Huntley as a suspect. But, due to her false statement, it took the police nearly two weeks to arrest and charge him.
The court accepted that Carr had only lied to the police to protect Huntley because she believed his claims of innocence and so found her not guilty of assisting an offender. She was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison and was released on probation
on 14 May 2004 after serving 21 months (including 16 months on remand). She was given a new secret identity to protect her from threats of attack from members of the public that had been made during her remand, as well as during and after the trial. After release, Carr and her family were negotiating towards an autobiographical book deal, but Gateshead
based publishers, Mirage Publishing
, withdrew after receiving scores of objections after a feature on BBC Radio Newcastle
.
, Clive Elliott, described it as a "pittance".
Following the announcement of Huntley's conviction, it emerged that various authorities were aware of allegations, from a number of sources, that he had committed one act of indecent assault
, four acts of underage sex and three rape
s.
The only one of these allegations that resulted in a charge was a rape, for which he had been remanded in custody but released when the Crown Prosecution Service
determined that there was not enough evidence for a conviction. Huntley had also been charged with burgling a neighbour in Grimsby but he was not convicted, although the charge remained on file.
On the day of Huntley's conviction, the Home Secretary
David Blunkett
announced an inquiry into the vetting system
which allowed Huntley to get a caretaker's job at a school despite four separate complaints about him reaching social services. One of the pertinent issues surfaced almost immediately when Humberside Police
(where all the alleged offences had taken place) stated that they believed that it was unlawful under the Data Protection Act
to hold data regarding allegations which did not lead to a conviction; this was contradicted by other police forces who thought this too strict an interpretation of the Act.
There was also considerable concern about the police investigation into the girls' murders. It took nearly two weeks before the police became aware of previous sexual allegations against Huntley, and despite him being the last person to see either of the two children, his story was not effectively checked out early during the investigation.
Huntley had not been convicted of any of the underage sex, indecent assault or rape allegations, but his burglary charge had remained on file. Howard Gilbert, then headteacher of Soham Village College, later said that he would not have employed Huntley as a caretaker if he had been aware of the burglary charge, as one of Huntley's key responsibilities in his role was to ensure security in the school grounds. The Soham murders led to a tightening of procedures in the Criminal Records Bureau system which checks the criminal background of people who work with children, following criticism that the system had weaknesses and loopholes.
(serving life for a 2004 quadruple murder in Yorkshire), attacked him. A prison service spokesman said that due to the nature of high-security prisoners, "it's impossible to prevent incidents of this nature occasionally happening", but Huntley alleged that the prison authorities failed in their duty of care towards him, and launched a claim for £15,000 compensation. Huntley was reportedly awarded £2,500 in legal aid
to pursue this claim, a move strongly criticised by the Soham MP James Paice
, who insisted on tight restrictions on the use of public money for compensation, and said, "The people I represent have no sympathy for him at all". Huntley's injuries meant that he did not attend the hearing at which his minimum term was decided.
On 5 September 2006, Huntley was found unconscious in his prison cell, thought to have taken an overdose. He had previously taken an overdose of antidepressant
s in prison in June 2003 while awaiting his trial. He was under police guard in hospital for two days, before being returned to Wakefield prison, prompting much reaction from many present at the scene as well as making the front pages of many of the UK newspapers the next morning. Following this attempted suicide his cell was cleared and a tape was found which was marked with Queen
on one side and Meat Loaf
on the other. This tape is thought to contain confessions from Huntley on what he did and how he did it. It is believed that Huntley made the tape in return for antidepressants from a fellow prisoner, who hoped to obtain and later sell the confession to the media upon his release. On 28 March 2007, The Sun began publishing transcripts of Huntley's taped confession.
In April 2007, Huntley confessed to have sexually assaulted an 11-year-old girl after dragging her into an orchard in 1997. His victim won the right to damages against Huntley. Huntley was believed to be insolvent so unlikely to pay any damages, but she claimed to feel "a massive sense of relief" at his confession. This followed repeated denials by Huntley that there had been a sexual element in the Soham murders, which the sentencing judge described as likely but not proven, and which if proven would have led to Huntley receiving a whole life prison term.
On 23 January 2008, Ian Huntley was moved to Frankland prison
near Durham.
On 21 March 2010, Huntley was taken to hospital, with media reports stating that his throat had been slashed by another inmate; his injuries were not said to be life-threatening. The prisoner who wounded Huntley was later named as fellow life sentence prisoner and convicted armed robber Damien Fowkes. Huntley applied for a £20,000 compensation payout for his injuries. On 11 June 2011, the Daily Mirror reported that Fowkes may not be tried over the attack on Huntley amid concerns about his mental health. However, in October 2011, Fowkes pleaded guilty at Hull Crown Court to the attempted murder of Huntley, as well as the manslaughter of Colin Hatch, a repeat child sex offender then imprisoned for murdering a seven year old boy, at Full Sutton prison
in February 2011. Fowkes received a second life sentence for the two attacks.
described as tabloid newspapers "whipping up the kind of public hysteria guaranteed to incite misguided people to take the law into their own hands".
Some tabloids have taken to writing inaccurate articles designed to smear her, possibly because of her unusual legal position. She has been variously accused of receiving thousands of pounds worth of dental treatment at the taxpayers' expense, applying for a childcare course, negotiating a £1 million book deal with a publisher and making a series of sensational demands in order to live abroad. All these stories were untrue, but Maxine Carr was unable to make any formal response to them without jeopardising her anonymity.
At least a dozen women have been attacked and persecuted as a result of lynch mobs "enraged by fake stories about Carr published by red-top papers", as Greenslade said. Channel 4
released a documentary describing this as a modern witchhunt against unknown women of similar appearance to Carr who have recently moved into an area.
The inquiry opened on 13 January 2004. The findings of the Bichard inquiry were published in June that year. The Humberside and Cambridgeshire police forces were heavily criticised for their failings in maintaining intelligence records on Huntley.
The inquiry also recommended a registration scheme for people working with children and vulnerable adults such as the elderly. The development of this recommendation led to the foundation of the Independent Safeguarding Authority
. It also suggested a national system should be set up for police forces to share intelligence information. The report said there should also be a clear code of practice on record-keeping by all police forces.
of Humberside Police, David Westwood, for ordering the destruction of criminal records of child abusers. Though supported by the Humberside Police Authority, he was suspended by then Home Secretary David Blunkett using powers granted under the Police Reform Act 2002 to order suspension as "necessary for the maintenance of public confidence in the force in question". The suspension was later lifted, with Westwood agreeing to retire a year early in March 2005.
The Chief Constable of Cambridgeshire Constabulary, Tom Lloyd, was also criticised as his force had failed to contact Humberside Police during the vetting procedure. Lloyd was censured by the police inspectorate for being slow to cut short a holiday after the investigation had become the largest in the force's history. The inspectorate also criticised a "lack of grip" on the investigation, which included nationally televised appeals by footballer David Beckham
, and Detective Superintendent David Beck who announced that he had left a message for abductors on Jessica's mobile phone before the case was taken from him.
Another complication was that two Cambridgeshire police officers involved with the families of the murdered girls had become Operation Ore
suspects a month before the murders. Antony Goodridge, one of the exhibits officers, later pleaded guilty to child pornography
offences and was given a six-month sentence. Detective Constable Brian Stevens, who had spoken at the memorial service, was cleared of all charges of indecent assault and child pornography offences when no evidence was offered by the prosecution.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
case in 2002 of two 10-year-old girls in the village of Soham
Soham
Soham is a small town in the English county of Cambridgeshire. It lies just off the A142 between Ely and Newmarket . Its population is 9,102 , and it is within the district of East Cambridgeshire.-Archaeology:...
, Cambridgeshire.
The victims were Holly Marie Wells and Jessica Aimee Chapman. On 4 August 2002, after going out to buy some sweets, the girls passed the home of local school caretaker
Janitor
A janitor or custodian is a professional who takes care of buildings, such as hospitals and schools. Janitors are responsible primarily for cleaning, and often some maintenance and security...
Ian Kevin Huntley, who called them into his house and then murdered them, apparently in a fit of rage after an argument with his girlfriend.
Huntley disposed of the girls' bodies near RAF Lakenheath
RAF Lakenheath
RAF Lakenheath, is a Royal Air Force military airbase near Lakenheath in Suffolk, England. Although an RAF station, it hosts United States Air Force units and personnel...
in Suffolk. In December 2003 he was convicted of two counts of murder
Murder in English law
Murder is an offence under the common law of England and Wales. It is considered the most serious form of homicide, in which one person kills another either intending to cause death or intending to cause serious injury .-Actus reus:The definition of the actus reus Murder is an offence under the...
and sentenced to life imprisonment
Life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...
. His girlfriend, Maxine Carr, who had provided Huntley with a false alibi
Alibi
Alibi is a 1929 American crime film directed by Roland West. The screenplay was written by West and C. Gardner Sullivan, who adapted the 1927 Broadway stage play, Nightstick, written by Elaine Sterne Carrington, J.C...
, served 21 months in prison for perverting the course of justice
Perverting the course of justice
Perverting the course of justice, in English, Canadian , and Irish law, is a criminal offence in which someone prevents justice from being served on himself or on another party...
.
Murders
On Sunday, 4 August 2002, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, both aged 10, had attended a barbecue at the Wells's family home. At around 6:15 pm they went out to buy some sweets. On their way back they walked past the rented house of local school caretakerJanitor
A janitor or custodian is a professional who takes care of buildings, such as hospitals and schools. Janitors are responsible primarily for cleaning, and often some maintenance and security...
Ian Huntley, in College Close. Huntley saw the girls and asked them to come into his house. He said that his girlfriend, Maxine Carr, was in the house too, but she had in fact gone to visit family in Grimsby
Grimsby
Grimsby is a seaport on the Humber Estuary in Lincolnshire, England. It has been the administrative centre of the unitary authority area of North East Lincolnshire since 1996...
, Lincolnshire. Shortly after the girls entered his house, Huntley murdered them.
Huntley's reasons for killing Wells and Chapman may never be known, but minutes before seeing them he had slammed the telephone down on Carr following a furious argument; Huntley had allegedly suspected Carr of cheating on him. The police suspected that Huntley killed the girls in a fit of jealous rage. Huntley's mother also said this. The police found no evidence of premeditation.
Investigation
After the girls were reported missing, the police released photographs of them wearing Manchester UnitedManchester United F.C.
Manchester United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League. Founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, the club changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to Old Trafford in 1910.The 1958...
replica football shirts and a physical description of each of them, describing them as "white, about 4 ft 6 in tall and slim".
Meanwhile, Huntley appeared in television interviews on Sky News
Sky News
Sky News is a 24-hour British and international satellite television news broadcaster with an emphasis on UK and international news stories.The service places emphasis on rolling news, including the latest breaking news. Sky News also hosts localised versions of the channel in Australia and in New...
and the BBC's regional news programme Look East, speaking of the shock in the local community.
The girls' bodies were found near the perimeter fence of RAF Lakenheath
RAF Lakenheath
RAF Lakenheath, is a Royal Air Force military airbase near Lakenheath in Suffolk, England. Although an RAF station, it hosts United States Air Force units and personnel...
in Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
, on 17 August 2002. Twelve hours later, their clothing was discovered in the grounds of Soham Village College and Huntley was arrested. The girls had been missing for 13 days when their bodies were found, with police stating that both corpses were "severely decomposed
Decomposition
Decomposition is the process by which organic material is broken down into simpler forms of matter. The process is essential for recycling the finite matter that occupies physical space in the biome. Bodies of living organisms begin to decompose shortly after death...
and partially skeleton
Skeleton
The skeleton is the body part that forms the supporting structure of an organism. There are two different skeletal types: the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, and the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside the body.In a figurative sense, skeleton can...
ised". Huntley had set them alight in a bid to destroy forensic evidence.
The school caretaker was charged with two counts of murder
Murder in English law
Murder is an offence under the common law of England and Wales. It is considered the most serious form of homicide, in which one person kills another either intending to cause death or intending to cause serious injury .-Actus reus:The definition of the actus reus Murder is an offence under the...
on 20 August 2002 and detained at Rampton Secure Hospital
Rampton Secure Hospital
Rampton Secure Hospital is a high security psychiatric hospital near the village of Woodbeck between Retford and Rampton in the Bassetlaw District of Nottinghamshire, England...
, Nottinghamshire, under Section 48 of the Mental Health Act
Mental Health Act 1983
The Mental Health Act 1983 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which applies to people in England and Wales. It covers the reception, care and treatment of mentally disordered persons, the management of their property and other related matters...
, where his mental state was assessed to determine whether he suffered from mental illness and whether he was fit to stand trial. Consultant psychiatrist
Psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
Dr. Christopher Clark carried out the assessment and stated:
This left Huntley facing life imprisonment if a jury could be convinced of his guilt. A judge ruled on 8 October 2002 that he was therefore fit to stand trial. Huntley was subsequently moved to Woodhill prison
Woodhill (HM Prison)
HM Prison Woodhill is a Category A men's prison and Young Offenders Institution, located in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. Woodhill Prison is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service.-History:...
in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, where he attempted suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
on 9 June 2003 by taking 29 antidepressant
Antidepressant
An antidepressant is a psychiatric medication used to alleviate mood disorders, such as major depression and dysthymia and anxiety disorders such as social anxiety disorder. According to Gelder, Mayou &*Geddes people with a depressive illness will experience a therapeutic effect to their mood;...
s which he had stashed in his cell. There were fears that Huntley could die as a result of the overdose, but within 48 hours he was back in prison and was later transferred to Belmarsh prison
Belmarsh (HM Prison)
HM Prison Belmarsh is a Category A men's prison, located in the Thamesmead area of the London Borough of Greenwich, in south-east London, England. Belmarsh Prison is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service...
in London.
Ian Huntley
Ian Kevin Huntley was born in GrimsbyGrimsby
Grimsby is a seaport on the Humber Estuary in Lincolnshire, England. It has been the administrative centre of the unitary authority area of North East Lincolnshire since 1996...
, Lincolnshire, on 31 January 1974, the first son of Kevin and Linda Huntley. He spent two months living in the village of Hopton-on-Sea
Hopton-on-Sea
Hopton-on-Sea should not be confused with the village of Hopton which is still in Suffolk but near to the Norfolk town of Diss.There is also a British Holidays Caravan Park, named Hopton Holiday Village. There is also a Hopton near Wirksworth in Derbyshire...
, Norfolk, and also spent time living in Scunthorpe
Scunthorpe
Scunthorpe is a town within North Lincolnshire, England. It is the administrative centre of the North Lincolnshire unitary authority, and had an estimated total resident population of 72,514 in 2010. A predominantly industrial town, Scunthorpe, the United Kingdom's largest steel processing centre,...
, north Lincolnshire.
In February 1999, Huntley (then aged 25) met 22-year-old Maxine Carr at Hollywood's nightclub in Grimsby town centre. She later moved in with him at his flat in Barton-upon-Humber
Barton-upon-Humber
Barton-upon-Humber or Barton is a small town and civil parish in North Lincolnshire, England located on the south bank of the Humber Estuary, and at the end of the Humber Bridge. It lies east of Leeds, southwest of Hull and north northeast of the county town of Lincoln...
, a small town on the southern banks of the River Humber. Carr found a job packing fish at the local fish processing factory while Huntley worked as a barman. He also travelled to Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...
on his days off to help his father who was now working as a school caretaker in the village of Littleport
Littleport, Cambridgeshire
Littleport is the largest village in East Cambridgeshire, England, approximately north of Ely and south-east of Welney. It lies on the Bedford Level South section of the River Great Ouse, close to Burnt Fen and Mare Fen...
near Ely
Ely, Cambridgeshire
Ely is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, England, 14 miles north-northeast of Cambridge and about by road from London. It is built on a Lower Greensand island, which at a maximum elevation of is the highest land in the Fens...
.
In September 2001 Huntley applied for the position of caretaker at Soham Village College
Soham Village College
Soham Village College is a state secondary school with specialist Foundation Technology College and Language College status in Soham, Cambridgeshire, England. It has around 1350 students, aged 11 to 16. It has a wide catchment area which does not include Ely, although some students from Ely and the...
, a secondary school in a small town between Newmarket and Ely. The job had become vacant after the previous caretaker was dismissed for having an inappropriate relationship with a female pupil. Huntley was accepted for the post and began work on 26 November 2001.
Murder trial and subsequent revelations
Huntley's trialTrial
A trial is, in the most general sense, a test, usually a test to see whether something does or does not meet a given standard.It may refer to:*Trial , the presentation of information in a formal setting, usually a court...
opened at the Old Bailey
Old Bailey
The Central Criminal Court in England and Wales, commonly known as the Old Bailey from the street in which it stands, is a court building in central London, one of a number of buildings housing the Crown Court...
in London on 5 November 2003. He was charged with two counts of murder
Murder in English law
Murder is an offence under the common law of England and Wales. It is considered the most serious form of homicide, in which one person kills another either intending to cause death or intending to cause serious injury .-Actus reus:The definition of the actus reus Murder is an offence under the...
. The families of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were present for the duration.
Huntley admitted that the girls had died in his house; he claimed that he accidentally knocked Wells into the bath while helping her control a nosebleed, and this caused her to drown. Chapman witnessed this and he claimed that he accidentally suffocated
Asphyxia
Asphyxia or asphyxiation is a condition of severely deficient supply of oxygen to the body that arises from being unable to breathe normally. An example of asphyxia is choking. Asphyxia causes generalized hypoxia, which primarily affects the tissues and organs...
her while attempting to stifle her screaming. By the time he realised what he was doing, it was too late to save either of them. Based on this evidence, he admitted manslaughter
Manslaughter
Manslaughter is a legal term for the killing of a human being, in a manner considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is said to have first been made by the Ancient Athenian lawmaker Dracon in the 7th century BC.The law generally differentiates...
.
The jury
Jury
A jury is a sworn body of people convened to render an impartial verdict officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment. Modern juries tend to be found in courts to ascertain the guilt, or lack thereof, in a crime. In Anglophone jurisdictions, the verdict may be guilty,...
rejected his claims that the girls had died accidentally and, on 17 December 2003, returned a majority verdict of guilty on both counts of murder. Huntley was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum tariff to be decided by the Lord Chief Justice
Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales
The Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales is the head of the judiciary and President of the Courts of England and Wales. Historically, he was the second-highest judge of the Courts of England and Wales, after the Lord Chancellor, but that changed as a result of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005,...
at a later date.
After Huntley was convicted, it was revealed that he had been investigated in the past for sexual offences
Sex and the law
In general, laws proscribe acts which are considered either sexual abuse, or behavior that societies consider to be inappropriate and against the social norms. In addition, certain categories of activity may be considered crimes even if freely consented to...
and burglary
Burglary
Burglary is a crime, the essence of which is illicit entry into a building for the purposes of committing an offense. Usually that offense will be theft, but most jurisdictions specify others which fall within the ambit of burglary...
, but had still been allowed to work in a school as none of these investigations had resulted in a conviction.
In August 1995, when Huntley was 21 years old, a joint-investigation was launched by police and social services in Grimsby, after a 15-year-old girl admitted that she had been having sex with Huntley. Police did not pursue the case against Huntley in accordance with the girl's wishes.
In March 1996, Huntley was charged in connection with a burglary at a Grimsby house which took place on 15 November 1995, when he and an accomplice allegedly stole electrical goods, jewellery and cash. The case reached court and was ordered to lie on file. Also in March 1996, Huntley was once again investigated over allegations of having sex with an underage girl, but again he was not charged.
A month later, Huntley was investigated once again over allegations of underage sex
Age of consent
While the phrase age of consent typically does not appear in legal statutes, when used in relation to sexual activity, the age of consent is the minimum age at which a person is considered to be legally competent to consent to sexual acts. The European Union calls it the legal age for sexual...
, but this allegation too did not result in a charge. The same outcome occurred the following month when he was investigated over allegations of having sex with a 13-year-old girl.
In April 1998, Huntley was arrested on suspicion of raping
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
a woman. He admitted having sex with the woman but claimed it was consensual. The police decided not to charge Huntley.
A month later, Huntley was charged with rape and remanded in custody after an 18-year-old Grimsby woman claimed to have been raped by him on her way home from a nightclub in the town. The charge was dropped a week later after the Crown Prosecution Service
Crown Prosecution Service
The Crown Prosecution Service, or CPS, is a non-ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for public prosecutions of people charged with criminal offences in England and Wales. Its role is similar to that of the longer-established Crown Office in Scotland, and the...
examined CCTV images from the nightclub and determined that there was no chance of a conviction.
In July 1998, Huntley was investigated by the police on allegations that he indecently assaulted an 11-year-old girl in September 1997. However, he was never charged. He was investigated over allegations of rape on a 17-year-old woman in February 1999, but no charges were made against him.
The final allegation came in July 1999, when a woman was raped and Huntley – by now regarded by police as a suspected serial sex offender – was interviewed. He supplied a DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
sample and had an alibi
Alibi
Alibi is a 1929 American crime film directed by Roland West. The screenplay was written by West and C. Gardner Sullivan, who adapted the 1927 Broadway stage play, Nightstick, written by Elaine Sterne Carrington, J.C...
provided by Maxine Carr to assert his innocence. The woman subsequently said that Huntley was not the rapist. This was the only case where the victim had not identified or named Huntley as the attacker.
Home Secretary
Home Secretary
The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...
David Blunkett
David Blunkett
David Blunkett is a British Labour Party politician and the Member of Parliament for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough, having represented Sheffield Brightside from 1987 to 2010...
ordered an inquiry into these revelations, chaired by Sir Michael Bichard, and later ordered the suspension of David Westwood
David Westwood
David Westwood, QPM, is a British former police officer. He was Chief Constable of Humberside Police from March 1999 until March 2005. In 2004, he was suspended from July until September as a result of the Bichard inquiry into the Soham murders....
, Chief of Humberside Police
Humberside Police
Humberside Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing an area covering the East Riding of Yorkshire, the city of Kingston upon Hull, North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire...
. The inquiry criticised Humberside Police for deleting information relating to previous allegations against Huntley and criticised Cambridgeshire Constabulary
Cambridgeshire Constabulary
Cambridgeshire Constabulary is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement within the ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire in the United Kingdom. In addition to the non-metropolitan county, the Police area includes the city of Peterborough, which became a unitary authority area in...
for not following vetting guidelines. An added complication in the vetting procedures was the fact that Huntley had applied for the caretaker's job under the name of Ian Nixon, although he did state on the application form that he was once known as Ian Huntley. It is believed that Humberside Police either did not check under the name Huntley on the police computer — if they had then they would have discovered a burglary charge left on file — or did not check either name.
Sentence
Huntley was sentenced to life imprisonmentLife imprisonment
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...
and on 29 September 2005 his minimum term was decided. On this date, the High Court
High Court of Justice
The High Court of Justice is, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, one of the Senior Courts of England and Wales...
announced that Huntley must remain in prison until he has served at least 40 years; a minimum term which will not allow him to be released until at least 2042, by which time he will be 68 years old. In setting this minimum term, Mr. Justice Moses stated: "The order I make offers little or no hope of the defendant's eventual release."
Huntley was among the last of more than 500 life sentence prisoners waiting to have minimum terms set by the Lord Chief Justice after the Home Secretary's tariff-setting procedures were declared illegal. Anyone who committed a murder after 18 December 2003 would have a minimum term set by the trial judge.
Maxine Carr
Maxine Carr initially provided a false alibiAlibi
Alibi is a 1929 American crime film directed by Roland West. The screenplay was written by West and C. Gardner Sullivan, who adapted the 1927 Broadway stage play, Nightstick, written by Elaine Sterne Carrington, J.C...
to police for Huntley, claiming to have been with him at the time of the murders when she was in Grimsby
Grimsby
Grimsby is a seaport on the Humber Estuary in Lincolnshire, England. It has been the administrative centre of the unitary authority area of North East Lincolnshire since 1996...
. She was charged with perverting the course of justice
Perverting the course of justice
Perverting the course of justice, in English, Canadian , and Irish law, is a criminal offence in which someone prevents justice from being served on himself or on another party...
and assisting an offender. She pleaded guilty to the first charge and not guilty to the second.
Her failure to expose Huntley's lies in the early stages of the investigation (before either of them was arrested) meant that police initially eliminated Huntley as a suspect. But, due to her false statement, it took the police nearly two weeks to arrest and charge him.
The court accepted that Carr had only lied to the police to protect Huntley because she believed his claims of innocence and so found her not guilty of assisting an offender. She was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison and was released on probation
Probation
Probation literally means testing of behaviour or abilities. In a legal sense, an offender on probation is ordered to follow certain conditions set forth by the court, often under the supervision of a probation officer...
on 14 May 2004 after serving 21 months (including 16 months on remand). She was given a new secret identity to protect her from threats of attack from members of the public that had been made during her remand, as well as during and after the trial. After release, Carr and her family were negotiating towards an autobiographical book deal, but Gateshead
Gateshead
Gateshead is a town in Tyne and Wear, England and is the main settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead. Historically a part of County Durham, it lies on the southern bank of the River Tyne opposite Newcastle upon Tyne and together they form the urban core of Tyneside...
based publishers, Mirage Publishing
Mirage Publishing
Mirage Publishing was founded as a publisher of true crime books by Stephen Richards in 1998.The first book to come off the press was about murdered Tyneside gangland figure Viv Graham and was written by investigative author Stephen Richards....
, withdrew after receiving scores of objections after a feature on BBC Radio Newcastle
BBC Radio Newcastle
BBC Newcastle is the BBC Local Radio service English metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, broadcasting from studios on Barrack Road in Newcastle upon Tyne.- Technical :...
.
Post-trial
The Wells and Chapman families received £11,000 in compensation for the death of their daughters. The compensation was widely criticised in the media; the director of the Victims of Crime TrustVictims of Crime Trust
The Victims of Crime Trust is a charity which is aimed at providing care assistance to victims of serious crime, as well as raising awareness of the issues that are faced by victims of crime in the aftermath of the crime....
, Clive Elliott, described it as a "pittance".
Following the announcement of Huntley's conviction, it emerged that various authorities were aware of allegations, from a number of sources, that he had committed one act of indecent assault
Indecent assault
Indecent assault is an offence of aggravated assault in many jurisdictions. It is characterised as a sex crime.Indecent assault was an offence in England and Wales under sections 14 and 15 the Sexual Offences Act 1956...
, four acts of underage sex and three rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
s.
The only one of these allegations that resulted in a charge was a rape, for which he had been remanded in custody but released when the Crown Prosecution Service
Crown Prosecution Service
The Crown Prosecution Service, or CPS, is a non-ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for public prosecutions of people charged with criminal offences in England and Wales. Its role is similar to that of the longer-established Crown Office in Scotland, and the...
determined that there was not enough evidence for a conviction. Huntley had also been charged with burgling a neighbour in Grimsby but he was not convicted, although the charge remained on file.
On the day of Huntley's conviction, the Home Secretary
Home Secretary
The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...
David Blunkett
David Blunkett
David Blunkett is a British Labour Party politician and the Member of Parliament for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough, having represented Sheffield Brightside from 1987 to 2010...
announced an inquiry into the vetting system
Criminal Records Bureau
The Criminal Records Bureau , is an Executive Agency of the Home Office, which provides wider access to criminal record information through its Disclosure service for England and Wales...
which allowed Huntley to get a caretaker's job at a school despite four separate complaints about him reaching social services. One of the pertinent issues surfaced almost immediately when Humberside Police
Humberside Police
Humberside Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing an area covering the East Riding of Yorkshire, the city of Kingston upon Hull, North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire...
(where all the alleged offences had taken place) stated that they believed that it was unlawful under the Data Protection Act
Data Protection Act 1984
The Data Protection Act 1998 is a United Kingdom Act of Parliament which defines UK law on the processing of data on identifiable living people. It is the main piece of legislation that governs the protection of personal data in the UK...
to hold data regarding allegations which did not lead to a conviction; this was contradicted by other police forces who thought this too strict an interpretation of the Act.
There was also considerable concern about the police investigation into the girls' murders. It took nearly two weeks before the police became aware of previous sexual allegations against Huntley, and despite him being the last person to see either of the two children, his story was not effectively checked out early during the investigation.
Huntley had not been convicted of any of the underage sex, indecent assault or rape allegations, but his burglary charge had remained on file. Howard Gilbert, then headteacher of Soham Village College, later said that he would not have employed Huntley as a caretaker if he had been aware of the burglary charge, as one of Huntley's key responsibilities in his role was to ensure security in the school grounds. The Soham murders led to a tightening of procedures in the Criminal Records Bureau system which checks the criminal background of people who work with children, following criticism that the system had weaknesses and loopholes.
Huntley in prison
On 14 September 2005 Huntley was scalded with boiling water when another inmate, Mark HobsonMark Hobson
Mark Richard "Hobo" Hobson is a British spree killer who killed four people in North Yorkshire, England in July 2004. He was arrested after an eight-day nationwide manhunt involving more than 500 police officers and 12 police forces, during which time he was Britain's "most wanted man"...
(serving life for a 2004 quadruple murder in Yorkshire), attacked him. A prison service spokesman said that due to the nature of high-security prisoners, "it's impossible to prevent incidents of this nature occasionally happening", but Huntley alleged that the prison authorities failed in their duty of care towards him, and launched a claim for £15,000 compensation. Huntley was reportedly awarded £2,500 in legal aid
Legal aid
Legal aid is the provision of assistance to people otherwise unable to afford legal representation and access to the court system. Legal aid is regarded as central in providing access to justice by ensuring equality before the law, the right to counsel and the right to a fair trial.A number of...
to pursue this claim, a move strongly criticised by the Soham MP James Paice
James Paice
James Edward Thornton "Jim" Paice MP is a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom. He is the Member of Parliament for South East Cambridgeshire, and was first elected in the 1987 general election...
, who insisted on tight restrictions on the use of public money for compensation, and said, "The people I represent have no sympathy for him at all". Huntley's injuries meant that he did not attend the hearing at which his minimum term was decided.
On 5 September 2006, Huntley was found unconscious in his prison cell, thought to have taken an overdose. He had previously taken an overdose of antidepressant
Antidepressant
An antidepressant is a psychiatric medication used to alleviate mood disorders, such as major depression and dysthymia and anxiety disorders such as social anxiety disorder. According to Gelder, Mayou &*Geddes people with a depressive illness will experience a therapeutic effect to their mood;...
s in prison in June 2003 while awaiting his trial. He was under police guard in hospital for two days, before being returned to Wakefield prison, prompting much reaction from many present at the scene as well as making the front pages of many of the UK newspapers the next morning. Following this attempted suicide his cell was cleared and a tape was found which was marked with Queen
Queen (band)
Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1971, originally consisting of Freddie Mercury , Brian May , John Deacon , and Roger Taylor...
on one side and Meat Loaf
Meat Loaf
Michael Lee Aday , better known by his stage name, Meat Loaf, is an American hard rock musician and actor...
on the other. This tape is thought to contain confessions from Huntley on what he did and how he did it. It is believed that Huntley made the tape in return for antidepressants from a fellow prisoner, who hoped to obtain and later sell the confession to the media upon his release. On 28 March 2007, The Sun began publishing transcripts of Huntley's taped confession.
In April 2007, Huntley confessed to have sexually assaulted an 11-year-old girl after dragging her into an orchard in 1997. His victim won the right to damages against Huntley. Huntley was believed to be insolvent so unlikely to pay any damages, but she claimed to feel "a massive sense of relief" at his confession. This followed repeated denials by Huntley that there had been a sexual element in the Soham murders, which the sentencing judge described as likely but not proven, and which if proven would have led to Huntley receiving a whole life prison term.
On 23 January 2008, Ian Huntley was moved to Frankland prison
Frankland (HM Prison)
HM Prison Frankland is a Category A men's prison located in the village of Brasside in County Durham, England. Frankland is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service.-History:...
near Durham.
On 21 March 2010, Huntley was taken to hospital, with media reports stating that his throat had been slashed by another inmate; his injuries were not said to be life-threatening. The prisoner who wounded Huntley was later named as fellow life sentence prisoner and convicted armed robber Damien Fowkes. Huntley applied for a £20,000 compensation payout for his injuries. On 11 June 2011, the Daily Mirror reported that Fowkes may not be tried over the attack on Huntley amid concerns about his mental health. However, in October 2011, Fowkes pleaded guilty at Hull Crown Court to the attempted murder of Huntley, as well as the manslaughter of Colin Hatch, a repeat child sex offender then imprisoned for murdering a seven year old boy, at Full Sutton prison
Full Sutton (HM Prison)
HM Prison Full Sutton is a Category A men's prison in the village of Full Sutton, near Pocklington in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. Full Sutton is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service and holds some 600 inmates.-History:...
in February 2011. Fowkes received a second life sentence for the two attacks.
Carr after release
Maxine Carr was released from prison on 14 May 2004 and immediately received police protection. She won an injunction on 24 February 2005, granting her lifelong anonymity on the grounds that her life would otherwise be in danger from lynch mobs. The costs of this have been reported by different tabloid newspapers as being between £1 million and £50 million, costs that would possibly have been unnecessary were it not for what former Daily Mirror editor Roy GreensladeRoy Greenslade
Roy Greenslade is Professor of Journalism at City University London and has been a media commentator since 1992, most notably for The Guardian....
described as tabloid newspapers "whipping up the kind of public hysteria guaranteed to incite misguided people to take the law into their own hands".
Some tabloids have taken to writing inaccurate articles designed to smear her, possibly because of her unusual legal position. She has been variously accused of receiving thousands of pounds worth of dental treatment at the taxpayers' expense, applying for a childcare course, negotiating a £1 million book deal with a publisher and making a series of sensational demands in order to live abroad. All these stories were untrue, but Maxine Carr was unable to make any formal response to them without jeopardising her anonymity.
At least a dozen women have been attacked and persecuted as a result of lynch mobs "enraged by fake stories about Carr published by red-top papers", as Greenslade said. Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
released a documentary describing this as a modern witchhunt against unknown women of similar appearance to Carr who have recently moved into an area.
Bichard inquiry
An inquiry was announced on 18 December 2003, and Sir Michael Bichard was appointed as the chairman. The stated purpose was:The inquiry opened on 13 January 2004. The findings of the Bichard inquiry were published in June that year. The Humberside and Cambridgeshire police forces were heavily criticised for their failings in maintaining intelligence records on Huntley.
The inquiry also recommended a registration scheme for people working with children and vulnerable adults such as the elderly. The development of this recommendation led to the foundation of the Independent Safeguarding Authority
Independent Safeguarding Authority
The Independent Safeguarding Authority is a British non-departmental public body created by the Labour Government 2007-2010. The tabloid media campaign and the decision to set up the ISA followed an inquiry headed by Sir Michael Bichard that was set up in the wake of the Soham Murders...
. It also suggested a national system should be set up for police forces to share intelligence information. The report said there should also be a clear code of practice on record-keeping by all police forces.
Police Reform Act 2002
Bichard's report severely criticised the Chief ConstableChief Constable
Chief constable is the rank used by the chief police officer of every territorial police force in the United Kingdom except for the City of London Police and the Metropolitan Police, as well as the chief officers of the three 'special' national police forces, the British Transport Police, Ministry...
of Humberside Police, David Westwood, for ordering the destruction of criminal records of child abusers. Though supported by the Humberside Police Authority, he was suspended by then Home Secretary David Blunkett using powers granted under the Police Reform Act 2002 to order suspension as "necessary for the maintenance of public confidence in the force in question". The suspension was later lifted, with Westwood agreeing to retire a year early in March 2005.
The Chief Constable of Cambridgeshire Constabulary, Tom Lloyd, was also criticised as his force had failed to contact Humberside Police during the vetting procedure. Lloyd was censured by the police inspectorate for being slow to cut short a holiday after the investigation had become the largest in the force's history. The inspectorate also criticised a "lack of grip" on the investigation, which included nationally televised appeals by footballer David Beckham
David Beckham
David Robert Joseph Beckham, OBE is an English footballer who plays midfield for Los Angeles Galaxy in Major League Soccer, having previously played for Manchester United, Preston North End, Real Madrid, and A.C...
, and Detective Superintendent David Beck who announced that he had left a message for abductors on Jessica's mobile phone before the case was taken from him.
Another complication was that two Cambridgeshire police officers involved with the families of the murdered girls had become Operation Ore
Operation Ore
Operation Ore was a British police operation that commenced in 1999 following information received from US law enforcement, which was intended to prosecute thousands of users of a website reportedly featuring child pornography...
suspects a month before the murders. Antony Goodridge, one of the exhibits officers, later pleaded guilty to child pornography
Child pornography
Child pornography refers to images or films and, in some cases, writings depicting sexually explicit activities involving a child...
offences and was given a six-month sentence. Detective Constable Brian Stevens, who had spoken at the memorial service, was cleared of all charges of indecent assault and child pornography offences when no evidence was offered by the prosecution.