I had visions of Holly in a bath, says Dad

Kevin Wells had visions of his daughter in an empty bath before it was even suggested that she had been killed in Ian Huntley’s bathroom, he disclosed today.

Mr Wells revealed the images he repeatedly experienced five months after 10-year-olds Holly and Jessica Chapman were murdered in August 2002, during a harrowing 90-minute ITV documentary being broadcast tonight.

During the Soham murder trial, school caretaker Ian Huntley told the court that Holly had drowned in the bath when he accidentally killed Jessica by covering her mouth to stop her from screaming.

Mr Wells said in the documentary, entitled Our Daughter Holly: “It was quite bizarre. It was an image that came to me on such a regular basis that I factually recorded it with the police.

“I saw Holly in a bath, but the thing to mention is there was no water in the bath.

“Her hair was out away from her head. She was in a bath yet there was no water.”

The ITV1 special sees Holly’s parents, family and friends talk about the girl with a “lovely nature” who loved Britney Spears and Kylie Minogue.

Mr Wells said he would be waiting for Huntley, who was jailed for life at the Old Bailey last year, when the killer is released from jail.

“Fifty years now appears to be the minimum sentence that Ian Huntley is going to serve.

“That makes me 90 when he will be released – if he makes it through that period of his life. When I said I would be around to go and meet him, I meant it,” he said.

His wife Nicola said she would like to “hang him very slowly”.

Of Huntley’s 26-year-old former girlfriend Maxine Carr, who was jailed for conspiring to pervert the course of justice, she said: “I think she’s got a life sentence now anyhow.”

Despite their anger, the couple said they had to get on with the lives for the sake of their son Oliver, who was 12 when his younger sister died.

Mrs Wells said: “Obviously a major part of my life has been taken away, but we need to carry on and try to be as normal as possible for Oliver.

“He has got us through it. He has tried not to show too much emotion. We have tried to keep his life as normal as possible.”

Following the murders, Mr Wells began to write a diary recording his thoughts and experiences.

He wrote: “What we can’t still really deal with is did one of those girls see the other girl die?

“There would have been a lot of fuss and screaming and noise, I’m sure, if that was the case.”

He fights back tears when he describes how he penned a “goodbye letter” to his daughter, which he took to the mortuary.

He said: “It was a goodbye letter, a sorrowful letter. There was an element of apology in the letter as well.”

Asked what could have been done differently, Mr Wells is too upset to speak and then says: “At that time, there were many unanswered questions.

“We didn’t know what had happened to Holly. We had a suspect but no details.

“Was there something as a parent that could have been done? Something that could have taught Holly, that should have been mentioned to Holly that could have made her more aware of her position? That was the area of apology.”

Unbeknown to the couple, their son Oliver tested Huntley’s bath story after it emerged in court and told his parents the story did not match up.

Oliver had also written a note for his sister to take to the mortuary, with photos of friends, a Manchester United scarf, and Holly’s favourite cuddly toy.

The ITV special shows moving footage of Holly singing and blowing out candles on her second birthday, and of her as bridesmaid during a family friend’s wedding.

The family talk about the tragic day when the two children disappeared and their frantic search for them.

Holly’s father says that when police first arrived after they reported Holly and Jessica missing “the whole line of inquiry seemed to be on a naughty child scenario”.

Later, Mr Wells says it is like “an invasion” when the couple themselves come under police scrutiny, with “not a thing left unturned”.

Mrs Wells says: “I was thinking: ‘What next? Do they think we are the guilty ones?’ It was an awful feeling inside. I felt physically sick.”

Later, the Wells had a secret meeting with the Chief Constable of Humberside police, who told them Huntley had come under investigation in nine separate sex allegations in the 1990s.

An inquiry is currently taking place into how Huntley was able to get a caretaker’s job at Holly and Jessica’s school in Soham.

Mr Wells said: “Seeing those nine charges was quite soul destroying.

“It was explained to us by the chief constable, who seems a very decent man to me, that the reason these charges were removed was the Data Protection Act.

“There was no reason to challenge that. If someone in authority is telling me that, one has to accept that as a matter of fact.”

A moving piece of work written by Holly, when aged nine, showed she was looking forward to her future.

“I will be expected to have well-written work and be proud of it and also to have good behaviour,” she says.

The couple have not let their grief come between them.

Mr Wells, who runs a cleaning company, said: “We set ourselves very small stepping stones to move forward, very realistic targets of trying to make sure things were appearing to be okay at home.

“Not just for Oliver but for family and friends who themselves, need a bit of support, a bit of an uplift at a desperate time.”

Explaining his reason for doing the programme, Mr Wells says: “We had the most extraordinary daughter. I didn’t want that just to be forgotten. It needed to be shared with people.”

Describing in his audio diary how he feels after the convictions, Mr Wells says: “Just tangible relief that this man will never surface in the real world again.”

In another entry he describes his fear that the girls were subjected to a vicious sexual ordeal before they were killed.

The ITV documentary will be screened without commercial breaks at 9pm tonight.