Ian Huntley's chilling letter to daughter after she discovered who he really was
Ian Huntley is fighting for his life after being attacked in prison - and his daughter Samantha Bryan has revealed the chilling letter he sent her after she discovered who he was
Vile child murderer Ian Huntley is battling for his life today after a savage prison attack left him sprawled in a pool of his own blood.
The 52 year old killer was airlifted to hospital following an alleged assault by a fellow inmate inside his cell at HMP Frankland - a high-security Category A men's prison - in County Durham around 9am this morning.
The assault, which occurred this morning, reportedly left the murderer in a "terrible state" despite his status as a closely-guarded prisoner, with his condition described as "touch and go."
This comes amidst renewed examination of Huntley's conduct behind bars, with his daughter Samantha Bryan exposing the unsettling way in which Huntley attempted to deflect her efforts to uncover the truth.
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Samantha sought to visit her father in prison after discovering his existence as a teenager, hoping to gain more insight into the horrific murders.
However, he rebuffed her, responding with a brief letter stating: "Given the probable length of my future and your current motives I doubt there will be enough time for a significant shift in circumstances in order for us to ever meet".
He added: "You are still my daughter for whom I have much love. With Love, Ian", and tersely wished her a merry Christmas.
Samantha, hailing from Cleethorpes in Lincolnshire, lambasted his response.
Speaking to The Sun on Sunday, she said: "He's shown he's a pitiful, twisted, manipulative coward. There's so many other things I could call him. I feel contempt. His letter has left me with even more questions than I had before. He might be ill but I don't know for sure given he's written about the probable length of his future. I don't know what that means. But surely if he is sick you'd want to give some answers - you'd have nothing left to lose. Or maybe he is referring to the length of his sentence."
The fiend is currently incarcerated for the double murders of schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in August 2002. The two 10 year old best friends disappeared after going to buy sweets from the local leisure centre vending machine.
Over 400 officers were mobilised in the search to find them in the tranquil town of Soham, Cambridgeshire.
Huntley initially gave media interviews and even joined in the desperate search for the young girls. Unbeknown to officers, he had lured them into his home by claiming his girlfriend Maxine Carr, who was a teaching assistant at their school, was inside.
He murdered the girls before hiding their bodies in an irrigation ditch near the RAF base approximately 10 miles from their home.
Later that month, he was charged with two counts of murder and received two life sentences with a minimum term of 40 years.
Samantha learnt by accident that Huntley was her biological father when she reached 14. Her mother Katie had been merely 15 when she became romantically involved with Huntley, who was 23 at the time.
Maxine Carr was also jailed for providing her murderer boyfriend with a false alibi on the evening of the killings.
She had maintained she was at their home that tragic evening, taking a bath whilst he spoke to the friends at the front door, describing it as a "shame" that she had missed them during police and media interviews. It transpired that she had actually been at home in Grimsby, where the couple first met, though she denied any knowledge of Huntley's horrific crimes and insisted she believed she was protecting him from being framed.
Following the investigation, the Bichard inquiry was established to examine how Huntley obtained employment at a school despite being under suspicion for nine sexual offences, predominantly involving underage girls. The school headteacher, Howard Gilbert, had appointed the killer in November 2001 - just 10 months before the double murder - after Cambridgeshire police vetting gave him a clean bill of health.
However, during the 2004 inquiry, Mr Gilbert outlined how screening procedures fell short in identifying the danger Huntley presented to young girls. A representative for Durham Constabulary stated: "Police were alerted to an assault which had taken place within HMP Frankland in Durham this morning. A male prisoner suffered serious injuries during the incident and was transported to hospital. A police investigation is now underway into the circumstances of the incident and detectives are liaising with staff at the prison."
An insider informed The Sun that the notorious child murderer was left in a "terrible state" following the attack. "It was absolute chaos and Huntley was in a terrible state. I'm amazed someone was able to get anywhere near him because he is usually really closely protected.
"They must have timed it when he wasn't with prison officers and must have used a weapon to injure him so severely."
