Ian Huntley’s, daughter has revealed she only discovered her father’s identity after being given a school project on the murderer.
Samantha Bryan was 14-years-old when she found out her natural father was in fact the notorious murderer Ian Huntley, reports The Telegraph.
Huntley was found guilty of killing 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2002 while working as a caretaker at the girls’ school in Soham, Cambridgeshire.
Samantha only discovered Huntley was her dad when researching ‘notorious crimes’ for a school project. She was given a list of names and found a photograph of herself and her mother on Google in relation to Huntley’s crime.
She told the Mail On Sunday:
It was like being thumped in the chest. I began to shake, I couldn’t stop the tears.
Samantha was four years old at the time of the murder but never met her biological father. Her mother, Katie, met Huntley aged just 15 and left him during her pregnancy, after being subjected to physical attacks and rape. She then married Martin Bryan – Samantha’s ‘dad’.
Now aged 18, Samantha had been protected by legal anonymity but gave the interview to prove ‘she is as different from Huntley as it is possible to be’.
She revealed:
I hate him. He’s never been my dad, he’s nothing more than a sperm donor. To know he is genetically connected to me sickens me.
I’m speaking out, as I refuse to be ashamed for existing, otherwise I’d become just another of his victims.
I didn’t cause the pain, suffering and anguish he has caused to so many people, although I think of his victims and their families.
Samantha also described the moment she found out the shocking news, and how when she first read his name it meant absolutely nothing to her.
She said:
I entered his name into Google and started scrolling through pictures of him.
One picture jumped out at me. Although the faces were pixelated, I knew instantly one was my mum. And the little girl standing beside her was me at about ten.
She said she was immediately hit by the thought: “Was there anything of this monster in me? This Ian Huntley who had killed two little girls.”
However Samantha – now a trainee paramedic – says she has drawn a line under the association.
“What he is like hasn’t been passed on to me,” she said. “I will make a positive difference with my life, I want to help others… the exact opposite of everything he stands for and ever will.”
