Rhianna Benson
Samantha Bryan, the daughter of double child murderer Ian Huntley, has issued a statement after he was killed in jail last week.
Huntley had been behind bars in HMP Frankland, Durham, since 2003, when he was convicted of the brutal murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.
The girls, both 10, had been lured into the home of Huntley, their school's caretaker, after they left a family barbecue to buy sweets the year prior.
He then murdered the girls via asphyxiation and disposed of their bodies in an irrigation ditch 10 miles away, close to RAF Lakenheath. The pair's bodies were discovered 13 days later.
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Huntley was sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment, with a minimum of 40 years. His then-girlfriend, Maxine Ann Carr - who'd worked as the girls' teaching assistant - was also sentenced for three and a half years for knowingly providing Huntley with a false alibi.
His heinous crimes being committed in Soham, Cambridgeshire, led to Huntley being dubbed the 'Soham killer'.
On 26 February, during a prison workshop, Huntley was attacked by another inmate, murderer and rapist Anthony Russell, who repeatedly hit him over the head with a metal bar.
After being placed on life support for several weeks, doctors ruled that the convicted killer was in a vegetative state.
He subsequently died on Saturday (7 Mar), with his passing being confirmed by The Sun.
Prior to the murders of Wells and Chapman, Huntley had unknowingly welcomed a daughter, Samantha Bryan, who'd been raised not knowing who her father was after her mother got pregnant at 16.
It wasn't until Samantha began researching for a school crime project at 14 that she learned her father was a child killer.
In light of Huntley's death, the 27-year-old has since given an interview, telling The Sun on Sunday she feels nothing for him.
"We should flush his ashes down the toilet," Samantha suggested, admitting she was 'relieved' to hear he'd been attacked.
"He shouldn’t have the dignity of a funeral and grave. I will not be going. A funeral is pointless for a man like him."
She recalled her mother, Katie Bryan, being the one to inform her that her father had passed away.
"I felt relieved. I didn’t cry," Samantha - who never met her father - confessed. "I smiled. I was over the moon to be honest."
She continued: "I’m just glad he’s gone. It wasn’t as much of a shock as when I heard last week he’d been terribly injured as I thought he’d died then.
"So I was kind of expecting this call. But at the same time it is a shock to be told your biological father is dead. He’s nothing to me apart from biology.
"Over the years I’ve cried many times over the thought of Holly and Jessica and what their family have gone through. I don’t ever want Holly and Jessica to ever be forgotten."
Her mum, Katie, 45, also told the publication she'd debated visiting Huntley whilst he was on life support, 'to make sure it was him', fearing the attack 'was an elaborate hoax in order to give him a new identity and protect him'.
Katie had never taken Samantha to meet her father, explaining: "I feared he’d come looking for us one day - both of us. Now I don’t have to live in fear anymore."