Soham murderer Ian Huntley has died in hospital today following a violent attack in HMP Frankland, with his daughter Samantha Bryan expressing overwhelming relief
Ian Huntley’s daughter was “overcome with emotion” after learning of her father’s assault in prison. The infamous child killer died in hospital a week after a brutal ambush at HMP Frankland left him on life support.
Huntley was urgently rushed to hospital last Thursday after being repeatedly battered around the head with a metal pole in a workshop, allegedly by triple murderer Anthony Russell.
He suffered severe brain injuries and was placed into a medically induced coma. Huntley, who murdered schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, was said to be utterly ‘unrecognisable’ to his mother on his deathbed due to his injuries.
On Friday night, medical staff reportedly turned off the ventilator keeping him alive, following discussions with his mother, according to the Mirror, reports the Manchester Evening News.
In the wake of the attack, Huntley’s daughter Samantha Bryan said that she was “glad” it had occurred, telling The Sun on Sunday: “I started crying because I thought he was dead – it was an overwhelming sense of relief.
“Being his daughter has been a heavy burden. It felt like I could breathe again. I felt if he died, that burden died with him.” The 27-year-old beautician only discovered she was Huntley’s daughter when she was participating in a school crime project at the age of 14.
She stumbled upon a pixelated photograph of herself and her mum Katie linked to Huntley. Her mother Katie, 45, escaped Huntley’s violence after falling pregnant at 16.
Samantha has previously disclosed the unsettling methods the murderer used to prevent her from discovering the truth. After learning about his existence as a teenager, Samantha requested to visit her father in prison.
She sought to gain more insight into the dreadful murders he had committed. He declined her request, replying with a brief letter which stated: “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”.
He added: “You are still my daughter for whom I have much love. With Love, Ian”, and tersely wished her a good Christmas.
She told The Sun on Sunday: “He’s shown he’s a pitiful, twisted, manipulative coward. There’s so many other things I could call him. 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.”
Prior to his death, Samantha also declared that there’s “a special place in hell waiting for dad”.
Huntley had been serving a life sentence with a minimum term of 40 years for the murders of 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman after they left a family barbecue to buy sweets in Soham, Cambridgeshire, on August 4, 2002.
The former school caretaker subsequently dumped their bodies in a ditch.
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