THE parents of Holly Wells broke their silence last night to vent their hatred for her killer Ian Huntley. Shattered Kevin and Nicola Wells, who have just one lock of Holly's hair to remember her by after Huntley destroyed her body, believe she had to watch her friend Jessica Chapman die before she was killed herself.
He said: "Even after she was dead he desecrated her by burning her body, leaving us with no face to stroke and no hand to hold."
The couple,
also told of their:
-DISAGREEMENTS over the death penalty - Nicola believes
Huntley should die while Christian Kevin is opposed.
-ANGER at police who
treated them as suspects and put Health and Safety procedures above the search
for the missing girls.
- FEAR as a medium gave them accurate descriptions of
killer Huntley, his girlfriend Maxine Carr and the car used to dispose of
their bodies.
Kevin, 40, told how he became so destroyed by the lack of progress of the search for his daughter that he lay exhausted on her quilt and sobbed so intensely he could scarcely breathe.
Then his tears turned to rage at her abductor. He said: "My anger moved to hitting and punching Holly's quilt. How could any bastard hurt her?"
Despite that, he remains opposed to the death penalty for his little girl's killer, having turned to the Church for support since her death. He admits he begrudges him "every breath he breathes" - but fears hanging him would change nothing. Nicola, 36, however wants Huntley dead as a "just" punishment.
In an astonishing broadside at the police, the Wells' claim that when hundreds of people turned up to help search for the girls, police chiefs were more concerned with Health and Safety regulations about crowd sizes, than getting the search under way.
Kevin said: "It almost beggared belief. Two girls were missing and concern was focused on how to protect the force in case any searchers injured themselves."
They felt like criminals when officers subjected their house to a painstaking search and told them to look at their friends for a possible abductor.
Nicola was also repeatedly asked if there was any reason Holly would feel frightened to come home. The Wells' damning criticism will be a massive blow to the police who until now have enjoyed the couple's total support.
The couple went to a clairvoyant in desperation at the slowness of the hunt. The medium, Cambridge-based Dennis McKenzie, described a young man with cropped hair, a woman with mouse-like features and a small red car. They believe the descriptions were of Huntley, Carr and the red Fiesta he used to dispose of their bodies. He also told the parents the news they dreaded, that both girls were dead.
The couple also told how celebrities had helped them cope. England football
captain David Beckham gave their surviving son Oliver a pair of his boots
while Prince Charles invited both the Wells and Chapman families to tea.