A local journalist who interviewed Soham killer Ian Huntley has recalled the moment he became suspicious – and reported his concerns to the police. Twenty years ago, Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells left a family barbecue to buy sweets in their Cambridgeshire town. They never returned home. Former carer Huntley killed the 10-year-olds and then dumped their bodies in a ditch near an air base at Mildenhall in Suffolk. The 48-year-old is currently serving a life sentence for their murders. His then-girlfriend Maxine Carr was jailed for three-and-a-half years in 2003 after pleading guilty to conspiracy to pervert the course of justice for giving him a false alibi. Press Association reporter Brian Farmer has been reporting for decades, but the tragedy that unfolded in 2002 still stands out in his memory – along with the moment he became suspicious of the man who turned out to be a double murderer. The search for Holly and Jessica turned into one of the largest murder investigations the country had ever seen. Credit: Family photo In the days following the disappearance of the girls, when no one knew what had happened, Mr. Farmer decided to look for the headmaster of the high school – Ian Huntley. “It looked like he was the last person to see them,” he told ITV News Anglia. “So you always have to keep in mind that possibly, possibly the last man to see them is the culprit.” At the time, many people in Soham thought the girls had gone off with a stranger. When Mr. Farmer asked Hadley if they were the kind of kids who could do that, the superintendent said that Holly could, but Jessica would fight.” ” Mr. Farmer said. “He’s the janitor of a school they don’t go to. I think he said he’d seen them around, but how does one know how two girls will react like that unless they know them very well?” Press Association reporter Brian Farmer, left, in conversation with ITV News Anglia’s Matthew Hudson. Credit: ITV News Anglia Hadley also told Mr Farmer that he had spoken to the girls on the day they disappeared. talking to them as he washed his pet dog Sadie. “What confused me was not what they had said but what they hadn’t said,” the reporter recalled. “What they didn’t seem to mention was the dog. I didn’t think there was a child that age in the world who on a sunny August afternoon would meet a man washing a dog with soap and water and not do it” they didn’t mention the dog .” Mr Farmer reported his suspicions to the police. He later gave evidence at the Old Bailey trial. Maxine Carr gave her then-boyfriend a false alibi and was later sentenced to three and a half years in prison. Credit: PA Debbie Davies, then deputy editor of the Ely Standard, recalled handing out posters the paper had made around Soham four days after the girls were last seen. The posters featured a photo of Holly and Jessica wearing their Manchester United shirts, taken on the day they disappeared. Miss Davies, 62, said she knocked on the door of the home Hundley and Carr shared, with Carr opening the door and taking a poster, then immediately putting it up on their front window. She said she felt “sick” when it was later revealed that, by the time Carr showed the poster, Huntley had already murdered the girls. “It’s only been obvious since I thought about the horror of what happened in that house and the poster was there and the Manchester United shirts, I believe, were already in their bin outside – that’s where they were found later. “A horrific moment that only unfolded over time.” She said she was surprised Huntley never took the photo down. “The fact [was] the girls were lying in a shallow grave, and he knew it, and every time he saw that poster he knew what had happened. “That’s still hard for me to deal with and I can never understand what was going through his head. “I’m just surprised he never went and took the poster down.” ITV News Anglia’s Matthew Hudson explains how criminal record checks and child protection were tightened after the Bichard inquiry sparked by the Soham murders Want a quick and special update on the biggest news? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out what you need to know
