For Colin, my saviour.
FIRSTLY, I WOULD LIKE TO THANK MY ‘FUNNY GRANDDAD’ – THANK YOU FOR BEING MY BEST FRIEND THAT NO ONE CAN REPLACE. You really are the brightest star in the sky. God Bless and Rest in Peace.
A special thanks to my newfound friend Lisa, who has helped me find ‘Hailey’ again. For that I am truly grateful.
I also want to thank my good friends Shaun and Angela, who have never judged. Thanks.
Thanks to Patrick Anderson, not only a good friend but also a great photographer, who has given me countless pieces of advice and still does so.
Thank you to the Reverend Brian East, who made my wedding day a day I will never forget.
A very special thanks to ChildLine for giving me the support I needed as a child.
A big thanks to a very special gentleman whom I greatly admire, Stephen Richards, the man with the golden pen.
And finally, my saviour, the man with a golden heart – Colin. Without you, I wouldn’t be where I am today. A million thank yous.
CONTENTS
Title Page
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1: When the Sun Shines, Everyone is Happy
2: Jordan’s Attitude to Life and Catherine Zeta-Jones’s Way of Living
3: Not Seriously Wronged, the Child Trusts the Future
4: A Walking Time Bomb
5: We Can Do It the Easy Way or the Hard Way
6: Washing Away the Demons
7: Cannabis and White Powder
8: A F*****g Little Slapper and a Whore
9: Kissed for the Very First Time
10: Kidnapped and Trapped
11: You Must Do the Thing You Think You Cannot Do
12: A Snake in the Grass
13: Abuse Victims’ Time Behind Scars
Epilogue
Childline
Plates
Copyright
BEHIND THE SEEMINGLY INNOCENT MASK OF A SCHOOL CARETAKER SIMMERED THE TICKING TIME BOMB OF A SERIAL RAPIST OF VULNERABLE YOUNG GIRLS, A MAN UNKNOWN TO THE WORLD AT LARGE UNTIL HE FOUND INFAMY AS THE SOHAM MURDERER.
Despite past accusations of rape against him, a catalogue of controversial police blunders masked allegations that Ian Huntley had paedophilic tendencies. And, when, on 4 August 2002, he could no longer suppress the malevolence festering within him, he killed Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells, both aged ten.
Allegations of Huntley’s sexual obsession with young girls can be traced back to August 1995, when the family of a schoolgirl claimed that he had had sex with her. And yet, even though both the police and social services were to receive a string of accusations of rape against him over the years, he was still able to find work at a school, close to the very innocence of childhood.
News of the guilty verdict against Huntley for the Soham murders was not surprising when it was delivered in December 2003. Even so, the allegations against him that had surfaced in court caused shock waves of repulsion to sweep across Britain. People were appalled to find out that between 1995 and 1999 there were four accusations against Huntley of underage sex with girls of between 13 and 15, three rape allegations and one of indecent assault against an 11-year-old girl, Hailey Edwards.
The nation’s fury was aroused when it was learned that Huntley may have abused the innocence of each of these girls. However, a lack of evidence and the refusal of some of the alleged victims to press charges against him had made it impossible for investigators to establish guilt.
Between August 1995 and July 1998, Huntley was reported to what is now North East Lincolnshire Social Services on five occasions: once for the alleged indecent assault and four times for allegedly having sex with underage girls, one 13 years old, the others 15. But each time social workers began investigating, Huntley, with incredible ease, would move on and pick up another girl. His charmed evasion of charges was possible because, amazingly, no link was made between the cases. Each was dealt with by different social workers and social services kept no record of alleged offenders.
Nevertheless, three of the alleged cases of underage sex were passed on, independently of one another, to the Humberside Police when, in August 1995, an allegation against Huntley of sex with a schoolgirl was made by her family.
Then, in April 1996, after a family reported their concerns to her school, social services became aware of another girl, Emma Fish, who was involved with Huntley. However, the girl refused to speak to social workers and avoided them, and after she was seen by her GP it was decided there was no need for social workers to be further involved.
Huntley’s next conquest was 14-year-old Janine Oliver. It has subsequently been claimed that she lost her virginity to Huntley sometime in 1995, but it was not until the following year that she started going out with him, after he won her over with cheap cider and initiated sex. In May 1996, not far off the age of consent and determined to leave home, she refused to file a complaint – even though Huntley was cheating on her with her friends – and the police dropped their investigation.
That same month, the mother of a young girl, Louise Tinmurth, went on the warpath when her 12-year-old daughter met Huntley at a funfair. She claimed that Huntley once locked her in a room and demanded sex but she escaped. When social services interviewed her, she denied any sexual impropriety and said that she and Huntley were simply friends.
Then there was a 15-year-old who claimed that Huntley had kept her under lock and key during their six-month relationship and starved her for two weeks, after which she collapsed and was eventually taken to hospital. She also gave an account of Huntley sleeping with over 200 girls and said that it was control he sought rather than sex. None of these allegations led to Huntley being charged with any criminal offence.
In May 1996, two further allegations against Huntley were reported to social services by the families of other girls.
The following year, Huntley began a relationship with a 15-year-old, Katie Webber. Soon she became infatuated and said later, ‘Once it was clear I liked him and we’d had sex, he began to treat me like a child, to bully me.’
In July 1998, 12-year-old Hailey Edwards reported to the Humberside Police an indecent assault that she alleged Huntley had committed against her in September of the previous year, when she was 11. After investigating the claim, the police decided not to send a file to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
This allegation was made just a few weeks after Huntley had appeared in court in Grimsby, charged with raping another girl, a petite 18-year-old. On 22 May 1998, he was remanded in custody to the Wolds Prison at Everthorpe, Lincolnshire, before being granted bail on 30 May, when he secured a place in a bail hostel in Scunthorpe.
Then, on 30 June, after Huntley had stood in the dock at Grimsby Magistrates’ Court for a second time, new evidence came to light. In view of this, the CPS decided it no longer had a strong enough case against him in respect of the charge of rape and the case was discontinued.
Only a few months before, on 7 January 1998, Huntley