Our website is made possible by displaying online advertisements to our visitors. Please consider supporting us by whitelisting our website.

Soham murders: Police officer reveals Ian Huntley asked her ‘how long does DNA evidence last?’

Soham murders: Police officer reveals Ian Huntley asked her 'how long does DNA evidence last?' 2

A former police officer has revealed how child killer Ian Huntley approached her and asked ‘how long does DNA evidence last?’ before joking about killing her just days before he was arrested for the murder of 10-year-olds Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells in 2002.

Speaking in a new documentary, Sharon Gilbert, a former Special Constable with Cambridgeshire Police, explained how she was in her patrol car in Soham when she was approached by school caretaker Huntley who was ‘very relaxed’ and leaned on the side of her car to ask questions. 

Advertisement

Sharon was one of the many police officers who swarmed the small Cambridgeshire town in the days following the disappearance of the school girls who went missing during a family barbecue in August 2002.    

Huntley had lured the girls to his house and murdered them before dumping their bodies in a remote ditch. He was a caretaker at the local Soham Village College and was arrested after the girls’ bodies were discovered 13 days later.

During a two-week appeal to find the girls, Huntley gave TV interviews and joined in searches while his then-girlfriend Maxine Carr gave him a false alibi.

Advertisement

He was jailed for life in 2005. Carr was jailed for perverting the course of justice. She was released in 2004 with a new identity. 

A former police officer has revealed how child killer Ian Huntley approached her and asked 'how long does DNA evidence last?' before joking about killing her just days before he was arrested for the murder of 10-year-olds Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells in 2002. The girls are pictured

A former police officer has revealed how child killer Ian Huntley approached her and asked ‘how long does DNA evidence last?’ before joking about killing her just days before he was arrested for the murder of 10-year-olds Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells in 2002. The girls are pictured

Speaking in Channel 5’s for Soham: The Murder of Holly & Jessica, which airs tomorrow, Sharon explains: ‘The atmosphere in Soham was very solemn, there wasn’t very many people walking around, there were lots of police vehicles all over the place, lots of press parked at the end of the street

Advertisement

‘Every window in town had a picture of the girls in the Manchester United tops – with the press rewards.

‘On Wednesday afternoon we were tasked to go to Soham college, and Ian Huntley approached the vehicle and lounged over the hinge section of the door

‘He was very relaxed in his talking, he wasn’t nervous in any way shape or form

Advertisement

‘Normally when you’re sat in a police vehicle and someone comes up to talk to you they ask you about the equipment, the lights, anything else that’s visible. He didn’t want to know any of that

‘Quite early in the conversation he said to me “how long said does DNA evidence last?”

‘I said “indefinitely, they’ve used it on the Russian tsar family and woolly mammoths I believe”

Advertisement

‘Everything about him made me feel uneasy,  he had very strange eyes, like he’s looking at your but through you, like your not there

Huntley had lured the girls to his house and murdered them before dumping their bodies in a remote ditch. He was a caretaker at the local Soham Village College and was arrested after the girls' bodies were discovered 13 days later

Huntley had lured the girls to his house and murdered them before dumping their bodies in a remote ditch. He was a caretaker at the local Soham Village College and was arrested after the girls’ bodies were discovered 13 days later

‘At one point he said the school was locked up, he’d locked it, but he wasn’t sure if it would stay locked because the previous caretaker had left in dubious circumstances and had a second set of keys and it was a possibility he’d been in and out.

Advertisement

‘But before he said that he told everyone “if I told you that I’d have to kill you” 

‘I spoke to the Sargent and he said straight away it was a missing person’s enquiry and should I feel strongly about it to phone the inquiry line with my concerns.

‘As soon as I got home I phoned the enquiry line, I wanted them to know that he was a person that they needed to have interest in, and it was serious.

Advertisement

‘He’d done something that he was covering up with the way he was talking, and they needed to be interested in him.’

A few days later, Sharon woke up to the news Huntley and Carr had been arrested.

‘I ran downstairs and phoned the enquiry line again. I said you need to listen to the phone call I made on Wednesday.

Advertisement
During a two-week appeal to find the girls, Huntley gave TV interviews and joined in searches while his then-girlfriend Maxine Carr (pictured) gave him a false alibi.

During a two-week appeal to find the girls, Huntley gave TV interviews and joined in searches while his then-girlfriend Maxine Carr (pictured) gave him a false alibi.

‘I’m a member of Hampshire constabulary and I came to Soham and spoke to Ian Huntley and the conversation I had with him would be of interest to you.

‘When they came and took my statement,  one of the officers was sat at my table and every now and again I would say something and he’d go into the hall.

Advertisement

‘I think they were using what was going in my statement to question him’.

Huntley was found guilty of killing both girls and later sentenced to two life terms, with a minimum 40-year tariff at the maximum security Frankland prison in Durham. 

During his trial, he said that he had ‘killed the girls accidentally’ but later admitted the killing in leaked tapes from prison.

Advertisement

In a 2018 tape he said: ‘I know the people of Soham took me into their community, they trusted me, gave me a job and a home, and I betrayed them in the worst possible way.

‘And I am sorry for what I have done, sorry for the pain I have caused to the families and friends of Holly and Jessica, for the pain I have caused my family and friends, and for the pain I have caused the community of Soham.

‘I am genuinely, genuinely sorry and it breaks my heart when it is reported I have no remorse, that I relish something. I do not.’

Advertisement

He added: ‘I can’t change anything. I cannot remove that day from history, what I have done. I know those girls would be 26 this year with families of their own, jobs and lives. I thought about them when they were turning 21 and when they were turning 18. I know no matter what I say that people are not going to think any better of me … but I would much rather people have the truth about how I feel. I have nothing to gain by saying these things.

Huntley had lured the girls into the home before killing them

Huntley  had been given an alibi by his girlfriend Maxine Carr (right) - but it was later revealed she was in Grimsby visiting her mother.

Huntley (left) had been given an alibi by his girlfriend Maxine Carr (right) – but it was later revealed she was in Grimsby visiting her mother. 

‘I know I am never getting out. I have accepted that from day one.’

Advertisement

Huntley said he does not want to be freed from prison and insisted he will not apply for parole out of ‘consideration’ for his victims’ families.

The new documentary also speaks to reporters who were on the story at the time – including Brian Farmer, a reporter at the Press Association who found Huntley suspicious.      

‘The police issued a timeline of sightings, and they said Ian Huntley had seen the girls – although they didn’t say he was the last person to see the girls,’ he explained.

Advertisement

‘I went to the house and   I explained I just wanted to chat and get a few details, and they were quite reluctant.

‘I remember asking Maxine whether at school they’d done stranger danger and if they’d be told to not get into car and she said they had

‘I asked her from your knowledge of Holly and Jessica how would they react if someone said “get in the car”

Advertisement

‘Before she had the chance to answer, Ian answered and said “Holly would  probably get in and be quiet but Jessica would fight and be mad”

‘That’s when I thought something wasn’t right, so I started to ask him more about the girls. He said he and Maxine had been out  for a walk with their dog and he had got wet – he had got a hose out with soap and that’s when the girls came along.

‘They asked how Miss Carr [a teaching assistant at their school] was – I asked four or five times what they said

Advertisement

‘And what baffled me was “why didn’t they mention the dog” any child would be taken by the dog.

‘He was describing a conversation an adult would have – not two 10 year old girls, I was wondering, why wasn’t he telling the truth?’.

Huntley had been given an alibi by his girlfriend Maxine Carr – but it was later revealed she was in Grimsby visiting her mother.

Advertisement

Sky News presenter Jeremy Thompson also spoke to the programme, revealing how he interviewed Carr and was struck by how she was talking about Holly and Jessica in past tense. 

Soham: The Murder of Holly & Jessica, Channel 5, Weds 9th & Thurs 10th March at 9pm 

Advertisement

About The Author