EVEN now, Katie Bryan suffers flashbacks.
The physical, emotional and sexual abuse she alleges she suffered at the hands of Soham murderer Ian Huntley has left her permanently scarred – but for Katie, her biggest fear is now for her daughter, Sammy.
Huntley, who is rotting in jail for the murders of schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, is Sammy’s father, after Katie, 44, fell pregnant as a teenager.
Now Sammy, 27, has written to her dad asking to meet him.
Katie, of Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, says she would rather die than let that happen and is begging her daughter to stop looking for answers.
“Hell will freeze over before I give my blessing to Ian Huntley meeting our daughter because he raped and abused me,” she told The Sun.
“I’ll never let that monster near my child. I’ve told Samantha I don’t want her to go and meet him. I’ve begged her not to. I know she’s looking for answers. But I’m scared for her.”
Shockingly Katie also revealed one of her younger daughters – who we are not naming – once mistakenly believed she was Huntley’s evil ex, tearfully asking her: “Are you really Maxine Carr?”
Carr was jailed for giving Huntley a false alibi, but infamously turned on him as he sat in the dock, describing him as “that thing in the box”.
She served 21 months of her sentence for perverting the course of justice. On her release from jail in 2004, she was given a new identity amid concerns she would be attacked.
Katie, now a mum-of-four daughters, said: “I am not and never have been Maxine Carr. I don’t want Huntley tarnishing our daughter. I think it would damage her to meet a monster like him.
“Maxine was right back then in court to call him ‘that thing’. I’ve begged Sammy to stop trying to meet him or asking him for answers. He’s too much of a coward to tell the truth anyway.”
Why I want to meet my monster dad Ian Huntley
The murders of best friends Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman shocked the nation in 2002.
The little girls, whose lives stretched out before them, had been enjoying a family barbecue when they left the house to go for a walk together, but they never returned home.
Their bodies were discovered two weeks later, sparking a nationwide manhunt for their killer that ended with the arrest of former school caretaker Huntley. He was found guilty in December 2003.
In 2007 he also confessed to having indecently assaulted an 11-year-old girl whom he took into an orchard in 1997.
Teenage abuse
Katie alleges Huntley raped her when he embarked on an underage relationship with her when they both lived in Cleethorpes.
She says he persuaded her to run away from home when she was 15, and embarked on a sexual relationship with her despite the fact she was under the age of consent.
He met her through her mother Jacqui Edwards, when they worked together selling charity lottery tickets.
Jacqui went to police, who spoke to Huntley, but Katie says he lied, telling them they were not in a relationship, meaning no action was ever taken against him due to insufficient evidence.
After moving in with the monster, she alleges he brutally raped her, pushed her down the stairs, cut her hair off, forced her to eat cat food and kicked her in the stomach when she was pregnant with their unborn child.
Today she still suffers flashbacks, admitting “being beaten, physically and emotionally, and sexually abused has never left me”.
“I try hard not to, but you can’t help thinking about it – there’s always something that reminds you,” she said.
“He raped me during an argument when I was 16. I was taking a bath and he was shirtless in the bathroom when I realised he had scratch marks down his back – not from me.
“So there had clearly been someone else.
I was that young and naive I didn’t even understand at the time that it was rape… I was telling him to stop
Katie Bryan
“We were arguing. I went to get out of the bath, he grabbed my foot and I smashed on to the floor.
“I was crying and telling him to stop. I was a teenage girl. Then he forced himself upon me.
“I was that young and naive I didn’t even understand at the time that it was rape as I didn’t give my consent. I was telling him to stop.
“Afterwards I sat in the room crying and he just left the room.
“I didn’t leave him as I was in his spell – like many other women who experience abuse. I wasn’t strong enough at that point.”
She also claims to have suffered other abuse.
“When I was 16, he cut my hair off, telling me that no other man would look at me now,” she said.
“Another time I burned his tea, and to punish me he made me eat cat food.
“He put the cat food in a bowl and told me to eat it. When I wouldn’t, he then got chunks of it and started shoving it into my mouth. I was crying and telling him to stop.”
Katie found the courage to finally break free when she discovered she was pregnant.
When I was 16, he cut my hair off, telling me that no other man would look at me now
Katie Bryan
She said: “I say to this day that Sammy saved me. During yet another row he punched me in the stomach and pushed me, leading me to fall down the stairs.
“That was the final straw. She gave me the courage to leave. He stepped over me and walked out the door.
“I ran round the corner and phoned my mum asking her to pick me up.
“As we were putting my belongings into the car he came back and said,’ See you tomorrow sweetheart’.”
But she never went back.
Horror discovery
Katie only saw Huntley one more time in the flesh several months later, when she worked at Pleasure Island resort in Cleethorpes on a fairground ride.
She said: “I left the ride with everyone on it and ran to the phone and rang my mum. I was terrified.
“I thought I was in trouble as that’s something you never do. But when my mum explained they supported me.
“Even now my partner gives me so much support, and he has been my rock over the past eight years, as I think I have PTSD because I still get flashbacks.”
Shock discovery
Sammy found out she was Huntley’s daughter during a school lesson when they were Googling crimes in Grimsby.
She recognised herself pixelated online – and realised she was Ian Huntley’s daughter.
“I tried to protect my younger daughters but the same happened with my second eldest, who has a different dad,” Katie said.
“She came home from school one day quiet, withdrawn, and at first she wouldn’t speak to me.
“I asked her what was wrong and eventually she turned to me and said, ‘Are you Maxine Carr?’”
“I said no, but I immediately knew she’d seen something online.
“I sat her down and explained that Sammy’s dad is Ian. But I am not Maxine. I was with him when I was very young and he’s never going to be a part of our lives.
“I haven’t yet spoken to my two youngest daughters. But when they are a bit older I’m going to sit down and explain everything to them.”
She came home from school one day quiet, withdrawn, and at first she wouldn’t speak to me. I asked her what was wrong and eventually she turned to me and said, ‘Are you Maxine Carr?’
Katie Bryan
Huntley will not be considered for parole until 2042 and is currently caged at HMP Frankland in Durham.
Last week he was handed back his Xbox in prison, after losing privileges when he seemed to taunt his victims by wearing a red No10 Manchester United-style shirt.
School pals Holly and Jessica were both wearing the team’s tops when Huntley murdered them.
Katie said: “Huntley should die in jail. I am haunted with the fear that he will come to try to meet Sammy.
“He tried to destroy me. He failed. I won’t let him destroy my daughter.
“I want to ensure he will never be released and never, ever be eligible for parole for what he did.
“I am a mother. I won’t stay quiet about what he did to me, not just for my other daughters, but for every daughter out there.
“He should never again walk the streets. I want them to lock the door and throw away the key.
“I strongly feel that by highlighting who he is, I hope that will reduce any chance of him ever getting out.
“My daughters still don’t know the extent of what happened to me. But very early in their lives, I explained to them about consent. And how you have a right to say no.
“This is something I have instilled in them, as a direct result of what happened to me.”
