Huntley 'believed child abusers should be castrated'

Ian Huntley believed criminals who killed or sexually attacked children should be castrated or shot, his Old Bailey murder trial heard today.

In a statement to police following their arrest Huntley’s then lover, Maxine Carr, said they had talked about what should happen to such people.

She said Huntley’s mother had been upset by the death of eight-year-old Sarah Payne in 2000.

Both she and Huntley shared the view that those who targeted children should be dealt with harshly, she said.

Carr also said Huntley was wary of allowing children into their house when she was not there.

Transcript:

Officer: “Has Ian ever expressed any interest in children, a sexual interest?”

Carr: “No.”

Officer: “What about you, do you have any sexual interest?”

Carr: “No thank you, no.”

Officer “What do you think about me asking that question?”

Carr: “I think it’s disgusting.”

Officer: “Have you ever discussed anything like that with Ian?"

Carr: “No, no I mean I wasn’t with him when, what’s his name, sorry, when that little boy was killed by them two boys, I wasn’t with him then, or anything like that."

Officer: “Is that Jamie Bulger.”

Carr: “Yeah, so no nothing, well Sarah Payne, his mum talked to me about, his mum was quite upset about Sarah Payne, she kept getting the paper and everything and reading about it, but me and Ian never talked about Sarah Payne."

Officer: “Why not?”

Carr: “It just didn’t come in any interest.

“I know it sounds horrible but she wasn’t relevant to me, or our lives, so there’s no need to talk about it …”

Officer: “Well as you’ve mentioned with Sarah Payne it was very talkable and if his mum’s quite upset about it what were Ian’s views on that?”

Carr: “Nothing really, nothing at all, yeah, might say some b word, probably got them or something like that, they want shooting or whatever, just general what other people say, they just want castrating and people like that, that is the view that we have of people like that, sexually or killing or anything like that kind of people to do with children.”

Officer: “You said we?”

Carr: “Yeah.”

Officer: “Are your views the same?”

Carr: “They are, yeah.”