Brian Farmer, the first journalist to interview Ian Huntley after the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, has revealed the instinct that led him to report the killer to police. Farmer, then working for the Press Association in East Anglia, interviewed Huntley and his partner Maxine Carr on 8 August 2002, days after the two 10-year-olds vanished from Soham, Cambridgeshire.
Farmer told BBC News that he noticed inconsistencies in Huntley's account. Huntley claimed he was washing his Alsatian dog when the girls approached, but Farmer found it implausible that the girls would not have commented on the animal. 'They didn't seem to have mentioned the dog,' Farmer said. 'I simply didn't believe what he was saying.' His suspicion grew when Huntley, a caretaker at a school the girls did not attend, answered a question about how each girl would react to a stranger, stating that Holly would 'go quietly' but Jessica would 'put up a fight'.
After filing his story, Farmer contacted his brother, a retired detective, who agreed the remarks were suspicious. Farmer then alerted Cambridgeshire Police. He later gave evidence at Huntley and Carr's trial in 2003. Huntley was convicted of murder and sentenced to life with a minimum of 40 years; Carr was jailed for 21 months for perverting the course of justice.
Huntley died following an attack at HMP Frankland. Farmer reflected on the enduring pain for the victims' families: 'It simply can never go away for them, and this must be a day that’s just beyond belief for them.'
