Samantha Bryan, the biological daughter of Soham murderer Ian Huntley, has said she felt “relieved” and “over the moon” upon learning of her father’s death, declaring he deserves no funeral, no grave and that his ashes should be “flushed down the toilet.”
Huntley, 52, died on Saturday after his life support machine was switched off with the agreement of his mother, Lynda Richards, who had been at his bedside. He never regained consciousness following a brutal assault at HMP Frankland in County Durham on 26 February, in which he was allegedly bludgeoned with a three-foot metal bar in a prison workshop, leaving him in a coma with his head described as “split in two.” Triple killer Anthony Russell, 43, is suspected of carrying out the attack. Cheering and chanting was reportedly heard throughout the prison — nicknamed “Monster Mansion” — upon news of his death.
Samantha, Huntley’s only child, did not hold back in expressing how she felt. “I felt relieved. I didn’t cry. I smiled. I was over the moon to be honest,” she told The Sun on Sunday. “I’m just glad he’s gone.”
She was equally emphatic about what should happen to his remains, saying his ashes should be flushed down the toilet rather than given any form of respectful send-off. “He shouldn’t have the dignity of a funeral and grave. I will not be going,” she said. “Funerals are supposed to be about celebrating someone’s life and there’s nothing about him to celebrate. There’s no point having a funeral as he’ll burn in hell. There is no place for him in heaven. The devil is waiting.”
Her mother, Katie Bryan — who was in a relationship with Huntley from the age of 15 and was pregnant with Samantha when she was with him — echoed her daughter’s views. “Why should he be given the dignity of a grave? I don’t think he deserves a resting place. A Christian burial is for good people and he’s the devil,” she said, adding that she could not stop thinking about “what he did to Holly and Jessica and how he left them in a ditch.”
Samantha did not learn until she was 14 that Huntley was her biological father, discovering the truth after a school project led her to research her area’s most notorious crimes, where she found a photograph of herself and her mother online.
Despite her relief at his death, Samantha acknowledged the complexity of the moment. “It is a shock to be told your biological father is dead. He’s nothing to me apart from biology,” she said. She also expressed regret that she never had the chance to confront him directly. “I do wish I had met him before he died just to see what he would say if he was sat in front of me. But now he’s gone I’m not going to wallow in the fact I’ve never met him.”
She said she had “cried many times” for Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman — the two ten-year-old girls Huntley murdered in Soham in 2002 — and for their families, adding: “I don’t ever want Holly and Jessica to ever be forgotten.”
Huntley had been serving a life sentence with a minimum 40-year term since his conviction in December 2003. He had been subjected to multiple violent attacks throughout his time in custody.
