Featured Image Credit: PA
Topics: Crime, True Crime, UK News, News
Rhianna Benson
The family of Ian Huntley have said the double child murderer won't receive a funeral following his death last month.
The 52-year-old died on 7 March after being attacked by a fellow inmate, murderer and rapist Anthony Russell at HMP Frankland, Durham, who'd hit him over the head with a metal bar during a workshop.
Huntley had been behind bars since 2003, when he was handed two terms of life imprisonment with a minimum of 40 years for the brutal murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.
The pair of school girls were both 10 years old when they were lured into Huntley's Soham, Cambridgeshire home following a family barbecue. They'd recognised him as their school's caretaker.
Advert
Inside the property, Huntley murdered the girls via asphyxiation before disposing of their bodies in an irrigation ditch 10 miles away. Maxine Ann Carr, his then-girlfriend and the girls' teaching assistant, knowingly providing him with a false alibi, for which she received a three and a half years sentence.
The location of the murders gave Huntley the nickname, the 'Soham killer'.
After being attacked on 26 February, doctors ruled that he'd remain in a vegetative state.
Following his death on 7 March, however, questions had been raised over whether Huntley would receive a funeral service.
Answering them, his family have since told The Sun that the convicted killer is set to be cremated, and won't be honoured during a religious mass or a government-funded service.
"There will be no service, no memorial, no mourners, nothing. It is as it should be," they added.
Claiming the decision had come out of respect for the families of his victims, Huntley's family also confirmed that they'd scatter his ashes in private.
"They have always been utterly appalled by what he did," the source continued. "It was unforgivable and, for those reasons, they could not in good conscience hold a funeral."
Their update comes weeks after Sarah Sackman, the UK's Justice Minister, was forced to shut down claims that the government would contribute £3,000 towards Huntley's funeral.
"This man, Ian Huntley, doesn’t deserve anything more than the absolute bare minimum," she explained. "We’re not spending £3,000. That’s the maximum in our policy that it affords."
The killer's daughter, 27-year-old Samantha Bryan, previously told The Sun on Sunday she feels nothing for him in the wake of his death.
She'd learned of her father's identity at 14 whilst researching for a school crime project. Her mother had gotten pregnant by Huntley at 16, and raised Samantha as a single parent.
"We should flush his ashes down the toilet," his daughter hit out, claiming 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."
Elsewhere during the interview, Samantha added: "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."
Huntley's killer Russell, 43, has been charged with his murder, appearing in Teesside Crown Court earlier this month.
He's set to attend a pre-trial preparation hearing at Newcastle Crown Court next month.