11/03/04 - We owe it to Holly
By Frances Traynor
Daily Record
THE parents of Soham victim Holly Wells open their hearts on TV tonight about their 'extraordinary daughter'.
Kevin and Nicola Wells relive the torment of the last 18 months in the harrowing ITV1 documentary, Our Daughter Holly.
The grief-stricken couple break down frequently during the 90-minute film as they talk about the girl with a 'lovely nature'.
And Kevin tells how he had visions of Holly in an empty bath before it was even known she had been killed in Ian Huntley's bathroom.
He reveals the image he repeatedly saw after 10-year-olds Holly and Jessica Chapman were murdered in August 2002.
And how although he'll be 90 when Huntley is released from prison he'll be there to meet him.
Kevin says he threatened to turn vigilante during the search for his daughter and her best friend.
Armed with a cricket bat, Kevin pinpointed 25 houses in Soham where the residents weren't originally from the Cambridgeshire village.
It was in one of these properties he thought Holly and Jessica may have been held.
And he told officers leading the search for the pals that, if they didn't search the 25 houses, he would.
Speaking about the desperate days and hours after the girls disappeared , Kevin says the police eventually caved in to his demands and carried out the searches, but found nothing.
Unknown to any of them at this stage, Holly and Jessica were already dead, their bodies half-buried in a ditch 20 miles away.
They had been murdered by school caretaker Huntley, who is now serving life for the crime.
The programme is so sensitive that ITV, in an almost unprecedented move, are broadcasting it without commercial breaks.
Jessica's parents Les and Sharon do not take part.
Kevin, 40, says: 'We had the most extraordinary daughter and didn't want that to be forgotten.
'It needed to be shared with people.'
Holly and Jessica disappeared after a barbecue on August 4,2002.
For almost 14 days, their parents clung to the faint hope that the girls might still be alive, with Kevin and Nicola consulting several psychics. Medium Dennis MacKenzie,given one of Holly's cuddly toys by a relative, met the Wells 48 hours after the girls disappeared and immediately told them Holly and Jessica were dead.
Speaking on tonight's programme, Kevin says: 'I had an immediate sense of sadness.
'I kept saying 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry'. I couldn't stop crying.'
Later, Dennis gave Kevin and Nicola extraordinary details about their daughter's death.
These included an accurate physical description of Huntley and his partner Maxine Carr at that time not even suspects and the J-reg red Ford Fiesta Huntley used to dispose of the bodies.
Kevin reveals that the two sets of parents met with officials from Humberside Police who told them in confidence about the accusations of sexual assault made against Huntley in his home town of Grimsby years earlier.
None of the accusations led to any charges and the police deleted the information from their records, mistakenly believing they had to because of the Data Protection Act.
It meant when Huntley applied for the job as caretaker at the Soham Village School, police checks revealed he had no record.
Kevin said: 'It was soul-destroying to see those nine charges.
'Fifty years now appears to be the minimum sentence Ian Huntley will serve.
'That would make me90when he's to be released and I'll be around to meet him.'
lOur Daughter Holly A Tonight Special is broadcast on ITV tonight at 9 o'clock.
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