Soham murders

Huntley was transferred from Wakefield prison to Frankland prison on 23 January 2008. Two years later, on 21 March 2010, he received non life-threatening injuries to his neck after his throat was slashed by convicted armed robber Damien Fowkes. The injuries Huntley received in this attack required hospital treatment. Huntley again applied for compensation for the injuries he received in this attack, seeking £20,000 in damages.

In April 2007, Huntley confessed to having sexually assaulted an 11-year-old girl he had dragged into an orchard in 1997. This admission—in which Huntley also confessed to having a sexual interest in children while insisting the murders of Wells and Chapman had not been sexually motivated—was welcomed by the victim of this sexual assault. Following Huntley's admission of guilt, this victim issued a press statement in which she confessed to feeling "a massive sense of relief", but concluded this statement with the sentence: "Yet, I still feel upset that Huntley was left at large, resulting in the deaths of two innocent children."

On 5 September 2006, Huntley attempted to kill himself by taking an overdose of antidepressants he had accumulated in his prison cell. This resulted in his hospitalisation and a thorough search of his cell, in which a cassette tape was recovered. This cassette tape contains a very different account of the murders of Wells and Chapman than that to which Huntley had testified at his trial. In what Huntley had believed would be his posthumous confession, he claims to have confessed to having murdered both girls to Carr prior to their arrest and his plans to confess to authorities, to which, Huntley alleged, Carr had slapped his face and informed him to "pull [himself] together" as she did not wish to lose the teaching position she had yearned for all her life. Huntley further alleges Carr had encouraged him to burn both bodies in an attempt to destroy all forensic evidence linking him to the crime. It is believed Huntley had agreed to make this recording for a fellow prisoner (who had hoped to later sell the confession to the media after his release), in return for being provided with the antidepressants he had used to attempt suicide.

On 29 September 2005 High Court judge Mr Justice Moses announced that Huntley must remain in prison until he had served a minimum of 40 years' imprisonment; a term which would not allow parole eligibility until 2042, by which time he would be 68 years old. In setting this minimum term of imprisonment, Mr Justice Moses stated: "The order I make offers little or no hope of the defendant's eventual release."

Prosecutors at Huntley's trial contended he had lured the children into his house with a likely sexual motivation, but investigators found no evidence of premeditation in relation to the murders. At the September 2005 hearing in which the minimum term Huntley should serve before any parole eligibility was decided, Mr Justice Moses stated: "There is a likelihood of [a] sexual motivation, but there was no evidence of sexual activity, and it remains no more than a likelihood."

In the years since his incarceration, Huntley has been repeatedly attacked by other inmates. On 14 September 2005, while an inmate at HM Prison Wakefield, he was scalded with boiling water by convicted spree killer Mark Hobson. The injuries Huntley received in this attack resulted in his being unable to attend the hearing at which his minimum term of imprisonment was decided. Following this attack, Huntley alleged that prison authorities had failed in their duty of care towards him, and launched a claim for £15,000 in compensation. He was reportedly awarded £2,500 in legal aid to pursue this claim.

Bichard later ordered the suspension of the Chief of Humberside Police, David Westwood, for ordering the destruction of records pertaining to alleged child molesters which had not resulted in a conviction. (This suspension was later overturned.) Westwood retired in March 2005. The Chief Constable of Cambridgeshire Constabulary, Tom Lloyd, was also subjected to severe criticism as his force had failed to contact Humberside Police during the investigation into Huntley's criminal background prior to his securing employment at Soham Village College.

On 3 April 2004, the three-bedroomed house in College Close in which the murders occurred was demolished and the site levelled, with all rubble from the property being discarded in various undisclosed locations. The site where 5 College Close once stood is now a vacant patch of grass.

Carr was released on probation from HM Prison Foston Hall on 14 May 2004 after serving a total of 21 months' imprisonment (including the 16 months she had been detained while on remand). She was given a secret identity to protect her from threats of attack from vengeful members of the public in addition to being provided with a new home in an undisclosed location. At the time, Carr was one of four former prisoners in the UK to be given a new identity upon release. Carr won an injunction on 24 February 2005, granting her lifelong anonymity on the grounds that her life would otherwise be in danger. The costs of imposing this order have been reported by differing tabloid newspapers as being between £1 million and £50 million.

Upon learning of these public disclosures, Home Secretary David Blunkett announced a public inquiry into the intelligence-based record keeping and vetting system which had allowed Huntley to obtain employment as a school caretaker despite these previous criminal complaints, which had been reported to police and social services. Chaired by Sir Michael Bichard, the Bichard inquiry opened on 13 January 2004. The results of this inquiry were published that June.

Huntley was convicted of the murder of both girls on 17 December 2003 and sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment, with the High Court later imposing a minimum term of 40 years. His girlfriend, Maxine Ann Carr—the girls' teaching assistant—had knowingly provided Huntley with a false alibi. She received a three-and-a-half year prison sentence for conspiring with Huntley to pervert the course of justice.

By 20 August, investigators had established sufficient physical evidence from Huntley's home, vehicle and Soham Village College to charge him with two counts of murder. He was charged with these offences while detained for observation at Rampton Secure Hospital in Nottinghamshire, and all preliminary hearings against him were postponed until the conclusion of his mental health assessment. Carr was also charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice on this date. She was further charged with two counts of assisting an offender on 17 January 2003.

Having been declared mentally fit to stand trial, Huntley was faced with a sentence of life imprisonment if a jury could be convinced of his guilt. He was transferred to a segregation unit at Woodhill prison in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. On 9 June 2003, he attempted suicide by taking 29 antidepressants which he had accumulated in his cell. Staff initially feared Huntley might die as a result of this overdose, but he was returned to his prison cell within 48 hours. Huntley was later transferred to London's Belmarsh prison.

At a preliminary hearing at the Old Bailey on 16 June 2003, Huntley pleaded not guilty to the charges of murdering Wells and Chapman, and guilty to the charge both stood accused of: conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. Carr pleaded not guilty to the charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice and assisting an offender.

The trial of Huntley for the murders of Wells and Chapman opened at the Old Bailey on 5 November 2003 before Mr Justice Alan Moses; Huntley was charged with two counts of murder, to which he entered a plea of not guilty. Carr was charged with two counts of assisting an offender and one count of perverting the course of justice.

The jury deliberated for four days before reaching their verdicts against both defendants. On 17 December 2003, they returned a majority verdict of guilty on two counts of murder against Huntley. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum term of imprisonment to be imposed by the Lord Chief Justice at a later date. Huntley's face showed no emotion as the verdict was announced; the mothers of both Wells and Chapman burst into tears.

Huntley avoided eligibility for a whole life tariff as the passing of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 had been one day after his conviction; thus taking effect on 18 December 2003 and applying solely to murders committed on or after this date.

The Soham murders were a double child murder committed in Soham, Cambridgeshire, England on 4 August 2002. The victims were two 10-year-old girls, Holly Marie Wells and Jessica Aimee Chapman, who were lured into the home of a local resident and school caretaker, Ian Kevin Huntley, who subsequently murdered the children—likely via asphyxiation—before disposing of their bodies in an irrigation ditch close to RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk. The girls' bodies were discovered on 17 August 2002.

At 11:45 a.m. on Sunday, 4 August 2002, Jessica Chapman left her home in Brook Street, Soham, to attend a barbecue at the home of her best friend, Holly Wells, in nearby Redhouse Gardens. Before leaving home, Chapman informed her parents of her intention to also give her friend a necklace engraved with the letter H she had purchased for her on a recent family holiday to Menorca.

The inquest into the children's deaths was held at Shire Hall, Cambridge, on 23 August 2002. Coroner David Morris testified the bodies of both girls were partially skeletonized, and that no precise cause of death could be determined for either of them. Morris stated that the most likely cause of death of both girls had been asphyxiation. He also stated that the girls had almost certainly not died at the location where their bodies had been discovered, and that both bodies had been placed there within 24 hours of their deaths. These conclusions were physically supported by an analysis of the shoots of nettles at the crime scene which enabled forensic ecologist and palynologist Patricia Wiltshire to estimate that the bodies had been placed at this location almost two weeks before.

The funeral services for Wells and Chapman were held on consecutive days in September 2002. Both services were held at St Andrew's parish church and officiated by Tim Alban Jones, and the girls were buried in adjacent graves in Soham's Fordham Road Cemetery, following ceremonies attended by only family and close friends. At the request of both families, the media refrained from reporting on either service.

While held on remand at Holloway Prison, Carr regularly enquired as to Huntley's welfare, and wrote several letters in which she professed her continued love for him. Carr only severed contact with Huntley in December 2002.

In February 2002, Huntley found Carr a part-time job at St Andrew's Primary School, although she lied about her academic qualifications when applying for this position. This employment was initially voluntary work, but Carr later became a teaching assistant in the school's Year 5 class. Wells and Chapman became two of the pupils she taught, and both girls were fond of her.

In July 2002, Carr applied for a vacant full-time teaching assistant position at St Andrew's Primary School. She found out on 23 July that her application had been unsuccessful. One of the children to express dismay at this decision was Wells, who having broken down in tears upon learning Carr's application for the teaching position had been unsuccessful, presented her with a hand-drawn card, depicting a smiling face, in which she stated: "I'll miss you a lot. Thank you! C ya around school! Miss ya! Luv Holly."

By mid-2002, the physical relationship between Huntley and Carr had begun to deteriorate. By Huntley's own later admission, he had become sexually frustrated, and had unsuccessfully attempted to persuade a married colleague to date him on the weekend Carr visited her mother in Grimsby.

An orange-petalled rose, dedicated to the memory of Wells and Chapman, was unveiled by representatives of Soham Town Council at the 2003 Chelsea Flower Show. The inspiration for dedicating a flower to the children's memory came from a poem read aloud at the memorial service at Ely Cathedral on 30 August 2002 by the father of Wells, titled Soham's Rose.

By 2001, Huntley's proven and alleged criminal activities had been reported to Humberside Police on ten occasions and to the social services on five occasions.

When they met, Huntley temporarily worked for an insurance company in Market Rasen. He soon found new employment at a finance company in Binbrook while Carr maintained her employment packing fish at a local fish processing factory. The couple relocated to East Anglia in early 2001. Shortly thereafter, Huntley obtained employment as a barman in a local pub.

By 2001, Huntley had re-established contact with his father, who worked as a school caretaker in Littleport, near Ely. He regularly travelled to Cambridgeshire from East Anglia on his days off to help his father, and soon developed aspirations to become a school caretaker himself. Via his father, Huntley learned of a school caretaker vacancy in nearby Soham Village College in mid-2001. He applied for and secured employment as a senior caretaker at this secondary school in September 2001, supervising the work of four other employees.

In September 2001, Huntley responded to a job advertisement for a job as a senior caretaker at Soham Village College. He applied for this using the alias Ian Nixon. No background check was conducted before or after this job interview, and although Huntley lacked extensive experience in this form of employment, his application for this position was successful. His employers helped him to get the tenancy of 5 College Close, and he and Carr moved to Soham in late September. Huntley began work at Soham Village College on 26 November. He worked as a senior caretaker there until his arrest.

The final criminal allegation against Huntley prior to the Soham murders dates from July 1999. In this instance, a woman was raped and Huntley–by this stage suspected by police as being a serial sex offender–was interviewed. Huntley supplied a DNA sample to assist in their enquiries, with Carr also providing an alibi to support his claims of innocence. The victim of this assault later said that Huntley had not been the perpetrator of her assault. (This was the only instance when a victim of Huntley had not identified or named him as being her assailant.)

In February 1999, Huntley met 22-year-old Maxine Carr in a Grimsby nightclub. On this occasion, Carr had been drinking with a former boyfriend named Paul Selby when Huntley—a casual acquaintance of Selby—approached the two and initiated a conversation. According to Carr, she was "instantly attracted" to Huntley's self-confident and pleasant persona, and agreed to begin dating him that same evening. Within four weeks of their acquaintance, she had moved into Huntley's Barton-upon-Humber flat, and the couple informed relatives of their eagerness to start a family. Shortly thereafter, the couple moved to a ground-floor flat in Scunthorpe, where Huntley formally proposed to Carr in June 1999.

By contrast, Carr quickly confessed to detectives she had lied about her whereabouts and her partner's actions on 4 August as, shortly before she had returned to Soham from Grimsby three days later, Huntley had claimed to her in a phone call to have seen the two girls shortly before their disappearance, admitting: "The thing is, Maxine, they came in our house!" According to Carr, Huntley then informed her the children had entered their home in order that Wells could stanch her nosebleed. He then claimed to her Chapman had sat on their bed as he had helped Wells control the bleeding from her nose before both girls had left their home. Referencing one of the 1998 rapes he had committed but had earlier claimed to her to have been falsely accused of in this phone call, Huntley then began voicing concerns as to again being falsely accused of involvement on this occasion, also claiming his previous arrest had caused him to suffer a nervous breakdown. She had therefore later agreed to concoct a false story with her partner to support his version of events.

Questioned about the efforts she had made to mislead both police and the media to divert suspicion from her partner, Carr emphasised she had only lied to police, the media and "anyone who asks" to protect Huntley, who had repeatedly assured her of his innocence of any wrongdoing and his fear of being "fitted up" by police for the girls' disappearance should they discover the 1998 rape allegation made against him. She further claimed to have referred to Wells and Chapman using past tense merely because she had worked with the children in the past.

In April 1998, Huntley was arrested on suspicion of raping an 18-year-old woman. He admitted engaging in sex with the claimant, but claimed the act had been consensual. He was not charged. A month later, Huntley was charged and remanded in custody at HM Prison Wolds for one week after another 18-year-old Grimsby woman claimed Huntley beat and raped her while she was walking home from a local nightclub. This complainant stated Huntley had threatened to kill her before assaulting her. Huntley admitted having sex with this woman, but insisted the act had been consensual. The criminal charge was dropped a week later after the Crown Prosecution Service, having examined CCTV footage from the nightclub and environs and finding evidence of the two socialising within the nightclub, determined insufficient evidence existed to secure a conviction for this offence. As a result of this complaint, further rumours regarding Huntley's sexual violence also became community gossip, resulting in Huntley being fired from his job and forcing him to move into his mother's home. He was also forbidden from initiating contact with his baby daughter or her mother.

In July 1998, police were notified that Huntley had sexually assaulted an 11-year-old girl in September 1997, having also threatened to kill the child if she informed her mother. He was never charged with this offence, but subsequently confessed to this attack in April 2007.

In March 1996, Huntley was charged with burglary. In this offence, he and an accomplice allegedly broke into the house of a neighbour in Grimsby and stole electrical goods, jewellery and cash. The case reached court, but the prosecution offered no evidence, resulting in a judge ordering the offence to lie on file.

In June 1994, Huntley began dating 18-year-old Claire Evans, who he met through his employment at a local Heinz factory. After two months of courtship, Huntley proposed to Evans. The couple married at Grimsby Registry Office on 28 January 1995. The marriage was short-lived due to Huntley's volatile temper, which surfaced within days of their marriage. Within a month, Huntley had begun to regularly sexually assault his wife, also subjecting her to indignities such as locking her in their house and cutting off her hair. On one occasion, he beat his wife so badly she suffered a miscarriage.

Between August 1995 and May 1996, Huntley established numerous sexual relationships with teenage girls, all of whom were under the legal age of consent. Three of them were aged 15, and one 13. One of these girls would become pregnant at age 15, and gave birth to a baby girl in 1998. Although reported to police on three occasions, Huntley was not charged for any of these offences as each of the girls denied having engaged in sex with Huntley. Each refused to file criminal complaints or accept help from social services. Rumours of Huntley's sexual interest in underage girls soon became community gossip, and he was regularly insulted by neighbours and colleagues. As a result, he began rebuffing any offers to socialise with colleagues for fear of being attacked while alone in their company.

An added complication in these criminal vetting procedures was the fact that Huntley had applied for the caretaker's job under the name of Ian Nixon, although he divulged on the application form for this position that he was previously known as Ian Huntley. It is believed that Cambridgeshire Police failed to perform a background check under the name Huntley. Had they done so, they would have discovered an outstanding burglary charge on file relating to his November 1995 arrest for this crime.

In 1993, Capp finished her schooling, having obtained no qualifications. She briefly worked alongside her mother in a fish processing plant as she considered which career path she should choose before enrolling at the Grimsby Institute of Further & Higher Education, having chosen to study general care. Capp obtained her diploma in 1996. The same year, she and her mother moved from Keelby back to Grimsby. Shortly thereafter, she briefly worked as a junior care assistant at a care home for the elderly in Grimsby, then returned to work alongside her mother as a labourer at Bluecrest fish processing plant.

Prior to murdering Wells and Chapman, Huntley had established an extensive record of consensual and unconsensual sexual activity with females—many of whom had been under the age of consent. He would typically use guile or force to achieve his desires. Between 1992 and 2002, he had committed many acts of physical and sexual violence against women and children for which he had been unpunished. The youngest girl Huntley is known to have raped was 12 years old, with another girl he had attempted to rape being 11.

In 1990, Huntley finished his schooling, obtaining five GCSE passes. He chose not to enrol in college and instead committed himself to finding employment. Between 1990 and 1996, Huntley worked in a succession of menial jobs, but seldom held any job for long. He also viewed himself as something of a ladies' man, and was scrupulous about his personal appearance and personal hygiene.

The marriage between Capp's parents was marred by frequent arguments. Following a heated argument in mid-1979, Shirley ordered her husband to leave the household. Shortly thereafter, she and her daughters moved to the village of Keelby. Alfred seldom maintained contact with his wife and children, and refused to provide any financial support for his daughters. Capp and her older sister, Hayley (born 1967), were largely raised by their mother and grandparents. The family regularly experienced financial difficulties, but Shirley would later state she "spoiled" her daughters to the best of her financial ability.

Maxine Carr was born Maxine Ann Capp. She was born in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, on 16 February 1977, the second of two daughters born to Alfred Capp and his wife, Shirley (née Suddaby).

Ian Kevin Huntley was born in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, on 31 January 1974, the first of two sons born to Kevin Huntley and his wife, Lynda (née Nixon). The Huntley family were working class and at the time of the birth of their first child, lodged with Lynda's parents in Grimsby. Following the birth of their second child, Wayne, in August 1975, the family moved into a rented property in Immingham, where Huntley attended school.