Soham killer Ian Huntley used devious school trick to hide disturbing past

18 October 2023 , 13:14

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True crime drama Maxine on Netflix has left audiences gripped as it retells the harrowing tale of what happened to 10-year-old schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman. Told from the perspective of Maxine Carr, killer Ian Huntley's girlfriend, the four-part series raises questions about how much she knew about the school caretaker's dark secret while shining a light on their abusive relationship.

Also featured in the drama, originally produced by Channel 5, is the Soham school's headteacher, Howard Gilbert. He is shown interviewing Ian Huntley, played by Scott Reid, for the job as the senior caretaker at the local secondary school, Soham Village College.

Provided with the job was a residence nearby, where Huntley lived with Carr, the girls' former teaching assistant at St Andrew's Primary School. It was at his 'home of horrors' that on August 4, 2002, that Huntley callously killed the two best friends after luring them inside by falsely claiming Carr was there.

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Maxine Carr was found guilty of perverting the course of justice (Press Association)

Evil killer Ian Huntley secured a job as a caretaker at the local secondary school 10 months before murdering the best friends (PA Archive/PA Images)

He then hid their bodies in an irrigated ditch, close to the RAF base about 10 miles from their home. The entire nation reeled when the shocking news broke that their bodies had been discovered by a gamekeeper almost two weeks later. It was revealed that Huntley, who had already been taken in for questioning, had gone back to where he dumped the bodies to cut off the girls' distinctive United shirts and tried to burn them in a bid to destroy any DNA evidence.

He then dumped the shirts in a bin at the school where he worked, covering them with another bag of rubbish, but the police found them in a watershed moment for the case. On August 20, Huntley was charged with two counts of murder and sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment, with a minimum of 40 years behind bars.

Minister says more must be done so sex offenders can't change names and vanish

Initially, Carr had provided Huntley with a false alibi. She said she was at home on that fateful night, taking a bath whilst he spoke to the friends at the front of the property, adding it had been a 'shame' that she had missed them in interviews with police and the press. It transpired that she had in fact been home in Grimsby, where the couple met, visiting her mother, but she denied knowing anything of Huntley's sick crimes and claimed she thought she was protecting him from getting set up.

During the trial, Carr was found not guilty of assisting an offender but was sentenced to three-and-a-half years for perverting the course of justice. After having served just half of her sentence, the now-mum-of-one was released from Foston Hall prison in Derbyshire in May 2004 and was provided with a new identity to protect her safety.

Principal of Soham Village College, Howard Gilbert (L) and Head Teacher of St Andrew's Primary School, Geoff Fisher (Press Association)

Following the investigation, the Bichard inquiry was set up into how Huntley managed to get a job at a school after being suspected of nine sex crimes, many involving underage girls. The school principal, Howard Gilbert, had employed the killer in November 2001 - just 10 months before the double murder - after Cambridgeshire police checks gave him the all-clear.

However in the 2004 inquiry, Mr Gilbert explained how vetting procedures failed to identify the risk Huntley posed to young girls. "The references should have been followed through and not to do them was a mistake. It is something I have thought about long and hard given the subsequent events," Mr Gilbert said. He added: "At the end of the day they should have been called in. A letter should have been sent to confirm that the references were genuine and authentic."

To hide in plain sight, Huntley gave his name as Nixon, his mother's maiden name, and said he had moved to Cambridgeshire in search of a "better quality of life" and to start a family with his fiancee. The references attached to his application described the killer as "reliable, honest and trustworthy".

After Huntley was arrested, police checked through Huntley's references and found there were gaps in his employment history. However the headteacher believed that if he had talked to the killer about the sexual allegations or withdrawn the job offer, it would have breached his civil liberties under the Police Act 1997, and called for a change in the law.

In a letter for the inquiry, Mr Gilbert wrote that vetting procedures appeared to place a greater value on Huntley's rights over those of the children he came into contact with. "I am incredulous that the current framework could result in a man with Mr Huntley's background not even being able to be challenged by a potential employer," he wrote.

The caretaker cottage was bulldozed in 2004 to erase the painful reminder (Press Association)

"Such was the seriousness of his background that I believe any headteacher would have withdrawn the offer of employment given the relevant information, regardless of the legal position. I am concerned more with situations which may not be so black and white as that of Mr Huntley."

After Huntley was sentenced, the caretaker cottage was reduced to rubble as a 20-ton bulldozer demolished it in order to prevent it from becoming a permanent reminder of Holly and Jessica's tragic deaths. At the time, Mr Gilbert said: "This has been a long time coming. For the school in particular there is a sense of relief.

"We have understood the reasons why the house had to stay with us for so long, but it is not the environment we want the school to operate in." Talking about his pupils, he added: "I am sure from their point of view it has been a reminder they could have done without having. I think there will be a sense of a burden being lifted when they return. A sense of lightness."