Ian Huntley, who murdered Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Soham, Cambridgeshire, has died in prison
Ian Huntley, who murdered Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Soham, Cambridgeshire, has died in prison
Gary Stewart Weekend editor and Tom Wilkinson Press Association
12:03, 07 Mar 2026
Soham murderer Ian Huntley, amongst Britain’s most despised killers, has died following a brutal prison assault. The former school caretaker was serving life with a minimum term of 40 years for the murder of 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2002.
The horrific crime sent shockwaves across the country and raised serious concerns about how someone with a background of sexual allegations could secure employment within a school. Huntley, who lived with Maxine Carr, a teaching assistant at Holly and Jessica’s primary school, enticed the best friends into his residence in Soham, Cambridgeshire.
Wearing Manchester United shirts, the girls had left a family barbecue on August 4 to buy sweets, and by chance encountered Huntley while Carr was absent for the weekend.
For motives known only to him, Huntley killed the girls and disposed of their bodies in a ditch 10 miles away.
They remained undiscovered for 13 days.
Their vanishing triggered a massive search operation involving hundreds of police officers.
The nation’s press converged on Soham and it wasn’t long before Huntley aroused suspicion due to his anxious behaviour.
Reporter Brian Farmer, who worked for the Press Association in East Anglia at the time, interviewed Huntley and was so troubled afterwards he contacted the police.
Mr Farmer, who had originally intended to speak with Carr, was taken aback when Huntley started describing how he envisaged the girls would respond to a stranger approaching them, despite having no acquaintance with them or employment at their school.
The journalist subsequently remembered: “The main thing that struck me when he answered the question was, well, how can he possibly know how they would react?”.
Huntley also showed reluctance towards being photographed – suggesting he wished to avoid recognition.
Indeed, during later television appearances, a viewer from the Grimsby area, where he was raised, identified Huntley and informed police about multiple rape allegations he had faced during the late 1990s.
Throughout his Old Bailey trial, Huntley attempted to persuade the jury that Holly had experienced a nosebleed before drowning in the bath, and that he killed Jessica whilst attempting to stop her screaming.
The jury rejected his account and found him guilty of two murder charges.
Mr Justice Moses told Huntley: “Ian Kevin Huntley, on the 4th of August 2002 you enticed two 10-year-old girls, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, into your house.
“They were happy, intelligent and loyal.
“They were much-loved by their families and all who knew them.
“You murdered them both. You are the one person who knows how you murdered them, you are the one person who knows why.
“You destroyed the evidence, which showed no mercy and no regret.”
A gamekeeper discovered the girls’ bodies in a ditch close to RAF Lakenheath.
Carr provided Huntley with a fabricated alibi and received a 21-month prison sentence for perverting the course of justice.
She now lives under a new identity. Following the trial, Jessica’s father, Leslie Chapman, said: “I think he was a time bomb waiting to go off and both our girls were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“I hope the next time I see him, it will be like we saw our daughters – and it will be in a coffin.”
The case sparked an investigation into how Huntley managed to evade police vetting procedures.
The inquiry’s report unveiled a “deeply shocking” series of mistakes made by all organisations that had interacted with Huntley prior to his horrific crimes against Holly and Jessica.
In prison, Huntley became a target, surviving numerous attempts on his life, and was closely guarded alongside other infamous murderers.
In 2010, robber Damien Fowkes attacked him with a makeshift weapon, inflicting a “severe, gaping cut to the left side of his neck” with a 7in (18cm) wound requiring 21 stitches.
Fowkes queried a prison officer: “Is he dead? I hope so.”
Media reports since his imprisonment have described Huntley as a loner, arrogant and a complainer, who sought to maintain close relationships with guards.
In a leaked conversation, Huntley allegedly said: “Every prison you go in is very, very dangerous, there’s no safe place in prison.”
