The teenage daughter of Soham killer Ian Huntley has revealed why she has cut contact with her father after writing to him for answers.
The killer’s daughter Samantha Bryan, 19, said she wrote to him in prison to try to understand why he murdered Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2002.
Her mother, Katie Webber, was raped and abused by Huntley, who subjected her to subjected her to humiliation, beatings and repeated rapes before their daughter was born.
After discovering the murderer was her father, she wrote to him but found that Huntley, now 44, showed no remorse for the killings and has now given up on him.
The teenage daughter (left, Samantha Bryan on Loose Women today) of Soham killer Ian Huntley (right) has revealed why she has cut contact with her father after writing to him for answers
Her mother, Katie Webber, was raped and abused by Huntley, who subjected her to subjected her to humiliation, beatings and repeated rapes before their daughter was born
Appearing on Loose Women today, she said: ‘I just wanted answers from him. When I first found out I was curious if he would give it or not.
‘I just wanted to build a little bit of trust up instead of diving straight in.
‘All I wanted to see if he would open up and show remorse. No (he didn’t show remorse).
‘Yeah (it gave me closure). It made me realise even if I wanted them answers I wouldn’t get them.’
Asked why she stopped writing to him, Ms Bryan said: I think it was just after realising I wasn’t getting anywhere with him.
‘If he had shown any kind of remorse I would have continued to write to him a little bit more. No (I wasn’t craving a father-daughter relationship).
‘I just wanted him to explain himself. I wouldn’t say I was angry I was more disappointed. It was cutting me off, definitely.’
Holly and Jessica (pictured), both 10, were killed in Soham, Cambridgeshire, in August 2002
Samantha Bryan and her mother Katie, who was abused by Huntley, pictured in 2016
Quoting a letter from murderer Huntley, the ITV show’s panelist Janet Street Porter (second from right) said: ‘He says: “I won’t discuss the most horrendous day of my life.”‘
Ms Bryan learned the true identity of her biological father thanks to a cruel classroom coincidence
Asked to carry out a project on the killer, she was searching online when she found a photograph that revealed Huntley to be her genetic father
Quoting a letter from murderer Huntley, the ITV show’s panelist Janet Street Porter said: ‘He says: “I won’t discuss the most horrendous day of my life.”‘
Her mother revealed she was upset that her daughter had wanted to get in touch with her ex in the first place.
Ms Webber told Loose Women: ‘I was quite upset at first. I didn’t want her to have any contact with him. But she’s a grown woman.
‘Just the way he works with mind games. He tries to make people feel sorry for him and draws them in. I knew he wouldn’t tell the truth and give her the answers.’
Ms Bryan learned the true identity of her biological father thanks to a cruel classroom coincidence.
Asked to carry out a project on the killer, she was searching online when she found a photograph that revealed Huntley to be her genetic father.
‘It was like being thumped in the chest,’ she recalled in 2016 . ‘I began to shake, I couldn’t stop the tears.’
Samantha (left) revealed she wrote to Huntley (right) to understand why he killed the girls
Holly and Jessica, both 10, were killed in Soham, Cambridgeshire, in August 2002. They went missing from a family barbecue after going out to buy sweets.
Their bodies were found nearly a fortnight later, around 14 miles away in a ditch near Lakenheath, Suffolk.
Huntley was later sentenced to two life terms, with a minimum 40-year tariff at the maximum security Frankland prison in Durham.
In a leaked recording published earlier this year he appeared to apologise for the killings.
‘I can’t change anything. I cannot remove that day from history, what I have done. I know those girls would be 26 this year with families of their own, jobs and lives,’ he reportedly said.
His voice could apparently be heard cracking with emotion in the tape recorded behind bars.