Ian Huntley has written a letter to his daughter refusing to meet her (Picture: PA/Rex)
Ian Huntley’s daughter has labelled him a ‘coward’ after the notorious killer wrote a letter to say he will never meet up with her.
Samantha Bryan has desperately been trying to arrange a visit to Frankland prison in Durham to see her father who murdered schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.
The 26-year-old has always maintained hope Huntley would reveal what actually happened to the ten-year-old girls he lured into his home and killed in Soham, East Cambridgeshire, in August 2002.
Both children are thought to have died of asphyxiation before their burnt bodies were dumped in a ditch near RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk around 10 miles away, but Huntley, who worked as a school caretaker, has never confessed the full story,
And now Samantha’s campaign to uncover the truth has been all but ended after Huntley replied to her with a cryptic letter, effectively refusing to ever meet her.
He wrote: ‘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.’
After receiving her dad’s response, Samantha questioned how much longer Huntley has to live and slammed him as being a ‘pitiful, twisted, manipulative coward’.
Huntley murdered the two schoolgirls in August 2002 (Picture: PA)
‘There’s so many other things I could call him,’ Samantha told The Sun. ‘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. But one thing is clear – he’s not going to meet me.’
Holly Wells, left, and her best friend, Jessica Chapman, pictured in their Manchester United shirts shortly before they disappeared (Picture: PA)
When Huntley, now 50, faced trial for the murder of the girls, he told the court they both died accidentally, claiming Holly drowned in the bath before he unintentionally suffocated Jessica while trying to stop her from screaming.
However, he later admitted in 2018 that deliberately killed Jessica to stop her from telling anyone about Holly’s death.
Samantha has tried to meet with Huntley before it’s too late due to the fact he’s previously attempted to kill himself, been subjected to violent attacks in prison and reportedly suffered with serious illness.
She hoped he would ‘tell at least part of the truth’ but has now come to realise that ‘he doesn’t want to make it worse for himself’.
Describing Huntley’s refusal to speak with his own daughter face to face, Samantha said: ‘It’s a cowardly thing to do.’
Samantha Bryan labelled Huntley a ‘coward’ (Picture: Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
It wasn’t until Samantha, from Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, was 14 years old that she found out who her real father was.
Her mother Katie Bryan, 46, claims she met Huntley when she was 15 and had a relationship with him while still underage.
Katie claims Huntley later became violent towards her before eventually raping her as she got out of a bath.
His abuse continued after she fell pregnant with Samantha and Katie alleges Huntley even pushed her down the stairs during that time, which led to her leaving him.
Samantha, who has suffered lifelong nightmares about her father, said she had ‘hoped to get answers’ not only for herself but also for Holly and Jessica’s families.
Maxine Carr was also jailed for her role in concealing the deaths of the two girls (Picture: Geoff Robinson/Shutterstock)
‘It deeply troubles me that they haven’t had answers,’ she added. ‘But his reply is so definitive I’m now going to step back and stop hoping.
‘I need to step away – for the sake of my sanity and my future.’
Huntley was sentenced to life in prison for his sickening crimes and will not be eligible for parole until 2042, by which time he would be 68.
Hix ex-girlfriend Maxine Carr was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for perverting the course of justice but was released after just 21 months.
Upon release, Carr was moved to a safe house, granted lifelong anonymity and given a new identity.
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