The caretaker had been investigated in previous posts but the concerns were not shared with his future employer.
The CRB checks are far more stringent now as a result of these murders,
Best wishes.
The Soham murders shouldn't have happened.
If Huntley had been successfully prosecuted for previous inappropriate relationships with very young girls, rather than dismissed by the local police in Hull where he originated from, he wouldn't have been free to murder.
Background checks are now standard practice & an extra precaution for anyone applying to work with children, these checks on Huntley might have saved Holly & Jessica.
Ian Huntley was the caretaker of the school where the two little girls were pupils. He tricked them into his house and murdered them dumping their bodies into a ditch. He `helped' to look for the two missing girls and even sympathised with their parents. His girlfriend Maxine Carr gave him an alibi.
At the trial he lied repeatedly about his involvement and it emerged that he had committed a sexual offence before where he had previously lived in another county. This did not flag up on the police data computers so his CRB check was passed when he applied to work at the school.
Huntley has been attacked in prison and also tried to take his own life. Unfortunately he is still alive. Maxine Carr has been released after serving a derisory sentence and has now been given a new identity courtesy of the tax payer.
It seems a case that eluded my radar net.
As you say, it seems to be infamous because it involves children ?. Its quite usual for the actual murderer to appear at a news conference seeming upset. There is lots on the net. I dont want to enclose a link as another user has written it all out.
It is perfectly usual for a culprit to divert interest away by co-operating with the police and effectively leading them up the garden path. As the school caretaker, Ian Huntley was a prime witness, since he would have sight of anyone approaching the school which might provide the police with a list of suspects.
I felt that his girlfriend during the murders, who covered for him during the police investigation and found guilty of perverting the course of justice, was treated rather harshly. If someone has a close bond with someone, either as a lover or as a close family member, one would expect this to take priority over a police investigation, even a murder investigation. Otherwise, we might all be in fear of being denounced to the authorities by those we rely on to trust, like the child Spies in the novel '1984'. A breakdown of trust and this sense of fear in the sanctuary of our own homes is a worse thing than lying to the police. Rather, armed with this assumption that she might well be covering for him, a competent detective could set up a situation where her lies would enable them to get their man and provide the evidence they need to get a result in court. In effect, by lying to the police, she becomes the star witness for the prosecution, and most importantly truth prevails and the right culprit faces justice. All they need is to persuade the Defence to call her as a witness to establish an alibi, and then take it apart in cross-examination, which is what I imagined actually took place.
One major contributory cause of this crime was the failure of the school authorities to investigate Ian Huntley's background before appointing him. There were serious concerns on file with neighbouring police in Cambridge that were not considered for whatever reason.
What came out of this case was the whole CRB procedure that is now used to screen anyone working with children, either in paid work or as volunteers. While many consider this a positive thing, the intrusion into privacy, the presumption of guilt and the admission of hearsay as evidence to condemn someone for life had deprived a generation of children from benign adult culture, and may well contribute to the death of much valuable cultural heritage.
For example, it is rare to find morris dancers or choral singers under 50, and churches are having to close by losing their youth leaders.
I have much to offer young people myself, but I am on file myself - 15 years ago, I fell in love with a teenager who had a crush on me. I allowed it to go no further, but made the mistake of confiding in her father who lodged an official complaint, which remains for life on my record. I cannot ever work with children or young people, so all that I have to offer in terms of knowledge, experience and understanding is to be lost.
Meanwhile, criminal and commercial elements are taking my place, which might actually be considerably more harmful to both children and to society. Because children and young people spend so much time in their bedrooms on the internet, we could be replacing a healthy sense of community spanning all ages with a set of mental health issues that might already be damaging our society and its future prospects beyond repair.
I have always wondered if the parents were so deep into the party they were in ,who was watching out for the girls?
sad story the guy helped the cops I think because he was reliving his crime and enjoyed it, it had nothing to do with remorse the dam psychopath
I know it involved two innocent kids and thats what makes certain cases stand out. Or was it because of who killed them and how he was happy to help the police and then turned out to be the murderer?
