The former partner of Ian Huntley, has said if she’d ‘fought back harder’ she might have been able to save the lives of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.
Katie Bryan has spoken about the violence, abuse and rape she was subjected to during her relationship with Huntley and how she feels she ‘missed opportunities’ that could’ve led to him being convicted sooner, reports The Mirror.
She told the Mail on Sunday:
I was too young to understand he was controlling me and squashing every ounce of self-esteem I possessed.
But it doesn’t stop me thinking now that had I fought back harder, had I gone to police, perhaps his paedophilia, his violence, would have been uncovered sooner.
That he would never have been able to walk into a job in a school where he could work with young children and ultimately kill those two beautiful little girls.
During the relationship Katie was violently beaten and raped by Huntley. She revealed that – after burning his dinner – he forced her to get on her hands and knees and eat cat food.
On another occasion he shoved a cucumber down her throat in an attempt to choke her and on her 16th birthday he cut off all her hair, telling her it was for her own good.
It wasn’t until Katie was three months pregnant with Huntley’s daughter that she finally managed to escape him after he raped her, punched her in the stomach and threw her down the stairs.
Katie’s revelations have come a week after her and Huntley’s 18-year-old daughter, Samantha, spoke about the moment she discovered the killer was her biological father while doing a school project aged 14.
She told the Mail On Sunday:
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.
It was like being thumped in the chest. I began to shake, I couldn’t stop the tears.
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 and is currently serving a life sentence.
