Ian Huntley biography

Synopsis

Early Life

Ian Kevin Huntley was born into a working class home in Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire, England, on January 31, 1974. He is the first son of Kevin and Linda Huntley. An asthma sufferer, Huntley had a turbulent time at school, as he was often the target of school bullying. The problem continued to escalate until, age 13, he was forced to change schools. He left school in 1990 and declined to continue his studies, despite reasonable grades, choosing instead to go directly into employment.

In the years after he left school, Ian Huntley already seemed to have developed an interest in young girls, and he was seen out with 13-year-old girls when he was 18. In December 1994, Huntley met 18-year-old Claire Evans. The two embarked on a whirlwind romance and married within weeks. The marriage was short-lived, however, and Claire left Ian within days of their wedding, choosing to move in with Huntley's younger brother, Wayne, instead. An enraged Huntley refused to grant his wife a divorce until 1999, preventing her from wedding his brother.

Following the collapse of his marriage, Huntley became more nomadic, moving from one rented flat to the next, and changing jobs frequently. He had a succession of relationships, one of which was with a 15-year-old girl, with whom he fathered a daughter in 1998. A subsequent enquiry revealed that, between 1995 and 2001, Huntley had sexual contact with eleven underage girls, ranging between 11 and 17 years old.

On January 7, 1998, Huntley appeared in court, charged with robbing a neighbor's house, and in May 1998, he was charged with the rape of an 18-year-old girl in Grimsby. Neither case proceeded to court due to lack of evidence, but the rape allegation tainted him substantially.

In February 1999 he met 22-year-old Maxine Carr at a nightclub, and they moved in together after 4 weeks. The relationship endured despite some turbulent arguments, and in 2001 they moved to the town of Littleport in, where Huntley took a job at a local center as the manager of a team of caretakers.

In September 2001 he applied for the post of caretaker at a local college, and in November 2001, despite his history of sexual contact with minors, he was awarded the position. Carr was employed as a teaching assistant at the local primary school.

Crimes

In the early evening of August 2002, two 10-year-old girls, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, were on their way to buy sweets when they walked past Huntley's rented house near the college. Huntley saw them and asked them in, claiming that Carr, who was known to the girls through her work at their school, was also at home.