Beyond Evil - Inside the Twisted Mind of Ian Huntley. Nathan Yates
else, and he created a fantasy world around himself in order to satisfy that craving. However transparent his lies, such was his rate of sexual success that, shortly before meeting Maxine Carr at the age of 24, he was to boast that he had slept with more than 100 women. Like everything Huntley said about himself, this was probably another lie, but there was an element of truth in it. He was enjoying what he considered to be a good hit rate, and he didn’t care what extremes he resorted to in order to achieve it.
In fact, Huntley was willing to do far more than lie in order to get sex, and the sexual activities he craved were becoming increasingly abnormal. From an early age he found that the more violent and forceful his conquests the better he enjoyed the experience. Ex-girlfriends speak of a control freak who loved to dominate and abuse women. At the age of 18 Huntley seduced a 12-year-old girl and took her virginity. The child was far too young to consent; he had made a grab for her after luring her away on her own. Once he had the girl in his flat, he gave her strong alcopops until she was drunk and did not know what she was doing. He then led the staggering child upstairs to his bedroom, undressed her and took advantage of her powerless state. For her, their intercourse was painful and terrifying; for him it was an enormous sadistic thrill. Although still barely into adulthood himself, Huntley was already displaying the urges of a paedophile, desire perverted into a thirst for extreme dominance and control. Huntley liked nothing more than to force a woman to have sex with him; he was a specialist in pressurising them in a manner which bordered on rape.
Huntley met a girl called Suzanne when he was 18. She was 16 at the time. She said: ‘I met Ian through a friend and I was initially very attracted to him, but he wanted to take things further sexually and I just wasn’t ready. He was a controlling, dominant personality and wanted everything his own way. He encouraged me to have sex with him.’ Suzanne went out with Huntley on and off for about nine months, before dumping him for another local man in his late teens. But five years later, and while she was still seeing her new boyfriend, she would sleep with Huntley again in a drunken one-night stand. She added: ‘We had been out for a few drinks and he invited me back to his place. One thing led to another and we ended up having sex. I told my boyfriend about my one-night stand and he forgave me but refused to speak to Ian again.’ Huntley no doubt got a thrill out of sleeping with someone else’s girlfriend; it was another example of his sexual dominance he could store away in his mind. He achieved a similar boost by burgling the flat of one of his neighbours, Lee Wood. Huntley stole jewellery and cash worth £700 from Mrs Wood’s house while she and her daughter were out. He was charged with burglary after confessing the offence to police, and appeared at Grimsby Crown Court in January 1998. However, the prosecution offered no evidence and the case was allowed to lie on file. Mrs Wood believed Huntley’s motive was as much malice as greed.
Huntley liked his activities to cause damage; in particular he enjoyed it when girls were frightened of him. On one occasion when he was 20 he managed to lure an 11-year-old girl into his bedroom. He had met the impressionable blonde child while on the prowl at a fun fair, and had managed to persuade her that he was her boyfriend. After enticing the besotted girl back to his flat, he kissed her and tried to pet her. When she resisted, he became enraged and locked the door, saying he would not let her out unless she let him take her virginity. He only let her go when she started to scream and he feared the noise might alert neighbours. The girl, now 20, remembers the incident with terror. Unlike Holly and Jessica, she was lucky enough to escape with her life and without being violated after Huntley, in a rare moment of compassion, relented and let her go. Another girl was 16 when Huntley managed to entice her into his flat. Again he locked her in and demanded sex, and because she refused he kept her there for two weeks. He starved her, not allowing her food or water, and after the ordeal was over she had to go to hospital. She was suffering from acute dehydration and malnutrition. The fortnight of fear had reduced her to a wreck.
Years later, following Huntley’s arrest, many women came forward to tell of their horrific experiences with him. One described how she was raped by Huntley after he chatted her up during a night on the town; another told how she was also raped and reported the offence to police, only for the case to be dropped. While working at the Heinz plant Huntley became known as the factory sex pest, and at least one female colleague made complaints of harassment against him.
During his twenties, Huntley was targeting young girls with a terrifying ruthlessness, sleeping with dozens who were under the age of 16. Detectives believe he had illegal sex with up to 60 girls, the youngest being only eleven. He carried out his assaults carefully so he would not get caught. His habit was to groom his victims in a flattering, friendly manner. He would use every form of manipulation to coax them into being alone with him. In several cases he used physical force to make the girls sleep with him. Afterwards, he frightened them into keeping quiet. During this spree of sexual abuse he was reported to police eight times. He was investigated for rape four times, and on a further three occasions for having sex with an underage girl. One girl who he was accused of abusing in May 1996 was just 13. He was said to have indecently assaulted an 11-year-old girl in September 1997. Huntley was so devious that none of the claims against him stuck. When police dug up these allegations after his arrest for murder, a clear picture emerged of Huntley the serial sex attacker. But the information came too late to save Holly and Jessica.
Despite his addiction to violent sex with children, Huntley craved a stable relationship and was desperate to get married. On the face of it this seems strange but the urge for a partner was born of the same gaping flaws in Huntley’s character. He needed someone he could dominate on a day-to-day basis. During his early twenties he made marriage proposals to several girls almost immediately after meeting them. At least two were turned down on the spot. Others slept with Huntley on the strength of his vows of undying love, but left him soon afterwards. Then in 1994, at the Heinz factory, he met Claire Evans, an 18-year-old with blue eyes and curly, reddish-brown hair.
The daughter of a textile factory worker, Claire was an attractive young woman who could take her pick of men in Grimsby. She had recently been through a family crisis which left her feeling vulnerable, insecure and in need of affection. In this state she was perfect material for Huntley, who had an uncanny ability to sniff out a woman in a weakened position. The 20-year-old put on his best charm act, chatting to Claire confidently and portraying himself as a thoroughly decent young man. He asked her out and spent a large slice of his week’s wage taking her on a Friday-night drinking session in the town. Friends say Claire fell for him completely; she told them she had met a man who was ‘every girl’s dream’, fun and exciting to be with. As usual during this time of his life, Huntley proposed within days of meeting her. In a decision she would later regard as ‘stupid’, she accepted.
Huntley and Claire were married at Grimsby Registry Office on 28 January 1995, three days before Huntley’s twenty-first birthday. The wedding was witnessed by Huntley’s mother, Lynda, and the best man was his brother Wayne. By all accounts it was a low-key affair and the reception was held in a nearby pub. The couple, who had known each other for less than six months, went to live at another of the many addresses Huntley had already accumulated: a one-bedroomed flat at 50 Heneage Road, Grimsby.
Huntley began battering Claire almost from the moment he got her home. The girl, just 19 at the time, was subjected to the most horrifying ordeal of domestic violence as Huntley flew into daily rages. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to his violence, which could erupt without warning. He would use his fists against his wife, and sometimes his feet. Her friends say he left her covered in bruises, and the only person who could protect her during the first few days was Huntley’s father, Kevin. A family friend said: ‘She literally had no one else to turn to, because Ian wouldn’t take any notice of anyone else. He went bonkers, beating her up every day. I still can’t understand why he did it, she was as good as gold to him. He must have just enjoyed hurting her, and he thought he could do that as soon as they got married. Before then he hadn’t laid a finger on her, even though they had the odd row.’
Wife-battering seems to have been part of Huntley’s version of a committed relationship. Although several girlfriends have said he was well capable of turning on the charm during the early stages, he almost always became violent once he thought he was in control. Later on he would commit similar acts of savagery against Carr. Unlike her, though, Claire could not put up with it, and within two weeks she