The child killer murdered Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2002
File picture of child killer Ian Huntley back in 2002 in Soham, Cambridgeshire (Image: PA/PA Wire)
Ian Huntley will have no funeral and his ashes will be scattered at an ‘undisclosed location’ reports say. His family have also refused a state-funded funeral out of consideration for the victims’ families.
Huntley died earlier this month following an assault in prison. He had been serving a life sentence with a minimum 40-year tariff for the murders of best friends Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2002, Chronicle Live reports.
He was taken to hospital after a fellow prisoner allegedly struck his head with a metal pole at HMP Frankland on February 26. He remained in a medically-induced coma before life support was withdrawn on March 6, passing away the next day.
The Sun now reports he will be cremated without any service or attendees, with his ashes then taken to a confidential location. Regarding cremation funding, the most recent Ministry of Justice prison guidelines state: “Prisons must offer to pay a contribution towards reasonable funeral expenses of up to £3,000.
“The only exceptions to this are where the family has a pre-paid funeral plan or is entitled to claim a grant from other government departments e.g., Department of Work and Pensions.”
Acceptable costs would encompass funeral director fees, coffin costs, hearse rental, cremation or burial charges and religious or belief leader payments. The contribution does not extend to headstones, flowers, obituary notices or wake costs.
A source revealed to The Sun: “There will be no service, no memorial, no mourners, nothing. It is as it should be. There will be no funeral. How could there be after what he did?
“He will simply be cremated and his ashes handed to his family. They have always been utterly appalled by what he did.
“It was unforgivable and, for those reasons, they could not in good conscience hold a funeral.”
His ashes will reportedly be dispersed covertly due to concerns about potential retaliation.
This follows Huntley’s daughter Samantha Bryan’s statement that the murderer should “burn in hell” and didn’t merit a funeral. She stated: “We should flush his ashes down the toilet.”
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