The VERY FIRST Interview with Ian Huntley & Maxine Carr — Transcript
Full transcript
- 0:00So in this video, I'll be sharing with
- 0:02you an incredible interview that was
- 0:03conducted with the very first journalist
- 0:06to approach both Ian Huntley and Maxine
- 0:09Carr after Holly Wells and Jessica
- 0:12Chapman's disappearance.
- 0:15Now 4 days into the search for Holly and
- 0:17Jessica, Brian Farmer of the Press
- 0:19Association turned up unannounced at 5
- 0:22College Close in Soham, home then to Ian
- 0:25Huntley and Maxine Carr.
- 0:28In this interview, Brian goes on to
- 0:30describing great detail Huntley's
- 0:32attempts at controlling the narrative,
- 0:34Maxine Carr's false alibi, and the
- 0:36general unease that Brian felt with Ian
- 0:39Huntley's story. Take a listen to the
- 0:42following.
- 0:43I was the first person, not not through
- 0:45any particular skill, just by a fluke
- 0:48really. I was the first person to
- 0:49interview Ian Huntley and Maxine Carr.
- 0:52But But one of the sightings was um the
- 0:55police said that the caretaker of Soham
- 0:57Village College, which was the the
- 0:59neighboring school to where the girls
- 1:00went to. They went to the junior school
- 1:02in Soham.
- 1:03They said the caretaker had had seen
- 1:06them outside his house. And And he at
- 1:09that stage was thought to be the last
- 1:10person to see them. So I decided that
- 1:13the first thing I would do was go and
- 1:15knock knock on the caretaker's door
- 1:18for for two reasons really.
- 1:20Um my logic would Sadly, I've covered
- 1:22quite a lot of cases where children and
- 1:25people have gone missing and been
- 1:26murdered. My logic is that um
- 1:29first of all, it's likely to be the the
- 1:31person who's responsible for whatever
- 1:33happened to Holly and Jessica. It's
- 1:34likely to be someone local. It's someone
- 1:36they know. It's not some wandering
- 1:38monster who's arrived from outer space.
- 1:41Uh uh uh um and it's probably a man. So
- 1:44the last man to see them is probably a
- 1:48the first person to go and speak to. And
- 1:50And that's what we seem to know. So I um
- 1:53I knew I didn't know anything about Ian
- 1:56Huntley. I didn't know his name was Ian
- 1:58Huntley. I don't recall seeing him
- 2:00before and he had no idea that Maxine
- 2:02Carr existed, but I simply wondered over
- 2:05to where his house was and uh
- 2:08knocked on the door.
- 2:10Um Maxine Carr answered the door and I
- 2:13remember Ian Huntley kind of poked his
- 2:15head around
- 2:16into the space um
- 2:19I explained to Maxine Carr who I was. I
- 2:21explained what the Press Association was
- 2:24and uh I I asked if the caretaker was
- 2:27there and Ian Huntley said that was him
- 2:29and I asked if I could come in and just
- 2:31have a chat.
- 2:32Um I said, you know, it it it hopefully
- 2:35what what you tell us about what you've
- 2:37seen might help find the children.
- 2:39Someone else might have seen you talking
- 2:41to them.
- 2:42Um it it it can only help. Then the
- 2:45first strange
- 2:46thing
- 2:47>> Can I ask a question? Um what what while
- 2:49while you're getting into this? So so
- 2:52you walked into this house um and and
- 2:57you know, when you looked at the
- 2:58demeanor of these people, their their
- 3:01approaches,
- 3:03you've been around the block a few
- 3:04times.
- 3:06Um was there anything there that was
- 3:07ringing alarm bells or or or did it just
- 3:10seem like you know, a normal day?
- 3:12And then the the first strange thing was
- 3:14in my experience of covering stories
- 3:16where children are missing.
- 3:18Now, people might hate journalists and
- 3:20not like journalists. That's quite
- 3:21common and not want to We don't want to
- 3:23talk to the press and so on, but when
- 3:24children are missing in my experience,
- 3:26people will normally help because they
- 3:28understand that talking to journalists
- 3:30and publicity might help find them.
- 3:32But But Huntley and Carr were were a bit
- 3:34reluctant and that struck me as a bit
- 3:36odd. They didn't want to talk to the
- 3:37press and they were were private people
- 3:40and all that kind of stuff. So I had to
- 3:42use a little bit of
- 3:44soft soap and persuasion to persuade
- 3:46them to let me in. And that surprised
- 3:48me. I mean, I'm not saying it made me
- 3:50think that
- 3:51they're the killers or anything, but it
- 3:52surprised me. But anyway, I'm I'm I
- 3:55persuaded them to let me in and we sat
- 3:56down
- 3:58um in the in the living room. And the
- 4:00first thing that I learned that um
- 4:04I didn't know was that Maxine Carr had
- 4:06been a
- 4:07a classroom assistant at Holly and
- 4:09Jessica's school.
- 4:11She'd worked there for a year, I think
- 4:12it was, and she she'd left
- 4:14just a few weeks ago at the end of the
- 4:16term.
- 4:17So, we started off before asking Huntley
- 4:19and Maxine about what he'd seen,
- 4:22we're asking I was asking Maxine Carr
- 4:24about what she knew about the girls. The
- 4:25girls had made her a card on the day she
- 4:27left. She showed us the card.
- 4:29And the first strange thing that
- 4:31happened was that I asked Maxine Carr if
- 4:33at the school they'd done stranger
- 4:35danger, you know, talking about don't
- 4:37don't go away with strangers.
- 4:39>> [snorts]
- 4:39>> And she said, "Yes, they had." And I
- 4:40asked Maxine Carr from her knowledge of
- 4:43Holly and Jessica, "What
- 4:45how did she think they'd react if, for
- 4:47example, a man pulled up in a car and
- 4:49said, 'Getting girls, I'll give you a
- 4:51lift.'" And the first odd thing was was
- 4:53that Ian Huntley answered the question
- 4:55in a kind of emotional, upset,
- 4:58excitable way. And and he said, "Well,
- 5:02Jess Holly would get into the car, I
- 5:04think, but Jessica wouldn't. She'd put
- 5:06up a fight. She'd go mad." And and the
- 5:08and the first thing that struck me there
- 5:10was, "Well,
- 5:11how could he know that? He's the
- 5:13caretaker of another school they don't
- 5:15go to." I mean,
- 5:16uh uh if you asked how my daughter might
- 5:18react to it, I I might have a rough idea
- 5:21how my daughter might react, but Roy
- 5:23wouldn't have any idea. So, the first
- 5:25thing that struck me strange was, "Well,
- 5:27how could he how could he know?"
- 5:29So, I then switched my attention to him
- 5:31and started asking him a little bit of a
- 5:34about what he thought the girls would
- 5:35react. And and then we started to talk
- 5:37to him about
- 5:38what had happened on the Sunday when
- 5:40he'd seen them. And
- 5:42what he said was was that um
- 5:44him and Maxine had been out for a walk
- 5:47with their dog. I I don't know if you
- 5:48remember, but they had a an Alsatian
- 5:51dog. She was called Sadie. She was a
- 5:53great big Alsatian dog and she had very
- 5:55long hair. She was quite furry.
- 5:58And Huntley said they'd been out for a
- 5:59walk in the afternoon. The dog had gone
- 6:01in a stream or something and got wet and
- 6:03muddy. They'd got a bit wet and muddy.
- 6:05So, when they got back,
- 6:07Maxine had gone inside to have a bath
- 6:10and he taken the dog outside onto the
- 6:12sort of quadrangle, the the public area
- 6:15outside.
- 6:16And he got a bucket and a hose and soap
- 6:18and he got soap on the dog and hosing it
- 6:21and washing it and so on. And at this
- 6:23stage he said Holly and Jessica had come
- 6:25wandering along in their Manchester
- 6:26United shirts as they were having their
- 6:29walk around the village
- 6:31on a Sunday afternoon. I asked him what
- 6:32they'd said and he said they'd asked how
- 6:34Miss Carr was and had she got another
- 6:37job and that kind of thing.
- 6:39I said, "What else, you know?" And he
- 6:41said, "Oh, nothing else." And I said,
- 6:42"Go through word for word what you said
- 6:44and they said." And he said, "Well, they
- 6:46just asked how Miss Carr was."
- 6:48I must have gone through it with him
- 6:50I don't know, four or five times. What
- 6:52struck me as odd was was it's not what
- 6:53they'd said, it's what they haven't
- 6:55said. I couldn't really believe that
- 6:57there were two 10-year-old girls on
- 6:59earth who on a sunny August afternoon
- 7:01wouldn't see a man washing a big hairy
- 7:04dog with soap and water who wouldn't be
- 7:06overcome by the dog. They'd say, "Well,
- 7:08well, that dog's so cute, aren't they?"
- 7:09Don't you They never seemed to notice
- 7:11the dog.
- 7:12And I didn't I didn't believe him. I
- 7:14didn't think that could be true.
- 7:17Um and then then the next thing was I I
- 7:20I started to think that from what he'd
- 7:22said there was something not right here.
- 7:24So, I
- 7:25I rang our photographer who wasn't
- 7:26there.
- 7:27And he came to the house. Um Maxine Carr
- 7:31posed with this card that um
- 7:33that the girls had bought her and was
- 7:35happy to pose. And then we said to to
- 7:37Huntley, "Would you be photographed and
- 7:39so on?"
- 7:40And we said it might help find the
- 7:42girls. and he he was adamant he wouldn't
- 7:44be photographed. He got quite angry and
- 7:46aggressive and wouldn't be photographed.
- 7:47And he said the strange thing, he said,
- 7:49"Even my mother doesn't have a
- 7:51photograph of me." Well, in my
- 7:53experience, if people don't want to be
- 7:55photographed, it's because they realize
- 7:57that if someone sees their photograph,
- 7:59they'll recognize them. The The woman
- 8:01they left behind will see them or
- 8:04or the man they don't know.
- 8:05Um
- 8:06So, um he wouldn't have his photograph
- 8:09taken. We couldn't force him to or pin
- 8:11him down or anything. So, we we left the
- 8:13house.
- 8:14And then, um I uh the the photographer
- 8:17had to go off to do something else. So,
- 8:19I um
- 8:20sat at I parked my car across from his
- 8:22house and I had a little plastic camera
- 8:25and I was thinking we've got to
- 8:26photograph him. Not photograph him
- 8:28because
- 8:29uh I was thinking that the police will
- 8:31be there to arrest him. So, we we'll
- 8:33need a photograph
- 8:35when he's arrested. Um And anyway, after
- 8:38sitting there for half an hour or
- 8:39something, a local newspaper
- 8:41photographer I knew got got well called
- 8:43called Helen
- 8:44and she climbed into the passenger seat
- 8:47with a
- 8:48with a box of cheese and onion
- 8:49sandwiches and a flask of coffee and
- 8:51said, "Can I come and sit and eat my
- 8:52lunch with you?" And I said, "You You
- 8:54sure can. You can give me a sandwich and
- 8:56get your camera out. And if anybody
- 8:58comes out of that house, you photograph
- 8:59them." And Huntley came out and that's
- 9:01the photograph
- 9:03of him famous photograph of him sitting
- 9:05in the car and in the window behind is
- 9:07the is is the local newspapers picture.
- 9:10And I think that was the only picture
- 9:11taken.
- 9:13And one interesting thing about the
- 9:15photograph is that
- 9:17Huntley was arrested the following week.
- 9:19So, we published the photograph the the
- 9:21following week to say this is the man
- 9:22who's been arrested.
- 9:24And it [snorts] wasn't a particularly
- 9:25None of the photographers who looked at
- 9:27it thought it was a particularly good
- 9:27photograph. But
- 9:30I I've got two brothers. As Roy said,
- 9:31one used to play for Stoke. But the the
- 9:33other one was a quite a senior detective
- 9:35and he'd not long
- 9:37um retired. And he rang me up when he
- 9:40saw the photograph in the newspapers and
- 9:42said what a fascinating photographer. I
- 9:44think you've got the right man, Brian.
- 9:46What he'd seen in the photograph was not
- 9:48Huntley. He'd seen the tires on the car.
- 9:51He noticed that you could see three
- 9:52tires on Huntley's old car and all three
- 9:55of those tires were brand new. And his
- 9:57question was
- 9:59why is a caretaker got three new tires
- 10:01on an old car? He's probably got four
- 10:03new tires on an old car.
- 10:05He's got four new tires on an old car
- 10:07because the tires he had on Sunday are
- 10:09covered in mud from where he deposited
- 10:11the bodies. And that was true. The
- 10:13picture played a part in the trial. I
- 10:16rang the police or my brother told me to
- 10:18ring the police and ask if they were
- 10:19checking tire places.
- 10:22They were indeed. Later that day they
- 10:23found the old tires at the tire place.
- 10:25And I'm not sure that
- 10:29I did anything particularly unusual. I I
- 10:31think I think that if if if I did
- 10:33anything well when I was interviewing
- 10:35him,
- 10:36I think it wasn't that I
- 10:38asked questions. I think it was that I
- 10:40listened. I've always been a I've always
- 10:43been of the view and I've always been
- 10:44trained
- 10:46that
- 10:47when you interview someone,
- 10:49the most important thing is not the
- 10:51questions you ask, it's the way you
- 10:53listen to their answers.
- 10:55Oddly, one of one of the most difficult
- 10:57things I've always found and this will
- 10:58sound silly cuz I've been a journalist
- 11:00forever. But one of the most difficult
- 11:01things I've always found to do
- 11:04is to ask someone questions and take a
- 11:06note because it's very hard to listen to
- 11:08what they're saying while you're writing
- 11:10down a note. So I've always developed a
- 11:12technique of not taking a note,
- 11:15of listening to what they're saying, and
- 11:17then if they say something interesting,
- 11:18then in Colombo kind of style to say,
- 11:21"Oh,
- 11:22do you just mind if I take a note of
- 11:24that so I can remember?" And it's very
- 11:26hard, but if you don't listen,
- 11:30>> And
- 11:31you're not giving yourself time to
- 11:33evaluate what you said. So, it might
- 11:35have been that when he and Huntley said,
- 11:38you know,
- 11:39the
- 11:40Holly would have reacted like that and
- 11:41Jessica like that. I I could have just
- 11:43written it down and gone and reported
- 11:45it.
- 11:46But but I think the key to it was
- 11:47listening to it and thinking about it.
- 11:50It made me realize that well,
- 11:52what what he had said couldn't possibly
- 11:54be right, could it? Cuz he couldn't It's
- 11:56It's simply impossible for him to know
- 12:00how they would have reacted. It's It's
- 12:01impossible.
- 12:02And and likewise with the dog, I could
- 12:04have simply written down that that's
- 12:06what they'd said. But
- 12:08but it didn't It's just not right, is
- 12:10it? No girls would react like that. So,
- 12:11I think if anything, the key It It It is
- 12:14is listening. I was all I was always
- 12:16taught and I was on a weekly paper that
- 12:19when journalists ask questions, they're
- 12:20not guard dogs. We don't snap at people
- 12:23and pin them down. What we are are sheep
- 12:26dogs. We want to guide our interviewee
- 12:29from one corner of a field to the other
- 12:31corner of a field.
- 12:32We don't mind if they ramble on the way.
- 12:34We don't mind if they start telling us
- 12:36about what their neighbor did or where
- 12:38their wife went yesterday because when
- 12:40they ramble, sometimes they tell you
- 12:42little gems of information that you
- 12:44couldn't possibly know to ask. So, all
- 12:46you do is gently They start talking too
- 12:49much about what their wife did at the
- 12:51gym, you just gently nudge them back in
- 12:53the But you must always let them ramble
- 12:55and and let them listen and and evaluate
- 12:59and think about what they say. So, I
- 13:00think if I did anything well,
- 13:02it's probably that I listened to what
- 13:05Ian Huntley said and had a good think
- 13:06about it. The The great irony is that
- 13:09Maxine Carr didn't say anything to me
- 13:12that seemed unlikely. She described how
- 13:14they'd had Sunday lunch and gone for a
- 13:15walk.
- 13:17But the truth was that Maxine Carr
- 13:18wasn't even in the house. Every word she
- 13:20said was a lie.
- 13:22She wasn't even there on that Sunday.
- 13:24She was in Lincolnshire at a party or
- 13:26something. Well,
- 13:28but [snorts] but it was only what Ian
- 13:29said that made me think that well, I
- 13:32don't think he's telling the truth. And
- 13:33then it made me think well, if he's not
- 13:35telling the truth, she must know he's
- 13:37not telling the truth. So, I'm not sure
- 13:38that he's telling the truth. And in
- 13:41terms of what I did with the
- 13:42information, obviously wrote stories
- 13:44about
- 13:45we went and wrote a story about what
- 13:46Maxine Carr had said and and what
- 13:48Huntley had said.
- 13:49But after we'd done that and after we
- 13:51got a photograph, I rang my brother, my
- 13:53policeman brother, told him
- 13:56what Huntley had said, told him how I
- 13:57thought it was so strange what he'd
- 13:59said.
- 14:00And my brother who'd been retired My
- 14:02brother was a the chief superintendent.
- 14:04He was a detective for most of his time
- 14:06in Cheshire.
- 14:07And um
- 14:08he he said I simply had to ring
- 14:10Cambridgeshire police straight away and
- 14:11let them know. He said if he'd been
- 14:13there, there would have been grounds for
- 14:14arrest. When you was sort of
- 14:18getting this feedback and and and you
- 14:20was coming to the conclusion that that
- 14:22Ian was lying,
- 14:24uh Ian only was lying. What what was
- 14:26going on? I mean, you know,
- 14:29how was you I mean, was you nervous? Was
- 14:32you I mean, how did you feel when when
- 14:34when you knew something was lying? You
- 14:36must have been thinking, this person in
- 14:38front of me
- 14:40very probably murdered two little girls.
- 14:44And I mean, what was your instinct?
- 14:47Excuse me. No I wasn't thinking like
- 14:49that. I'm a reporter. So, so
- 14:52the first thought is is when we're
- 14:56when we're covering stories about
- 14:58missing children or missing people,
- 15:00the first thought is that what we want
- 15:02to have are photographs of people who
- 15:04are arrested. So, my first thought
- 15:07wasn't anything like that. I know most
- 15:09people would think it would be like
- 15:10that, but but but I'm a reporter and
- 15:14every day all I do are sad things. I do
- 15:16horrible things all the time.
- 15:19The the the sort of horror the viewer
- 15:21would see, journalists when they're
- 15:23working don't see. You're You're
- 15:24concentrating on the on the work in
- 15:27front of you. So, my first thought as he
- 15:28was saying it, I wasn't thinking I've
- 15:31caught the killer or anything like that.
- 15:33I was thinking that
- 15:34he must be a suspect. There's a chance
- 15:37he's going to be arrested.
- 15:39We need to make sure I've got a a proper
- 15:42note of everything he said. And we need
- 15:45to make sure we've got a photograph of
- 15:46him because if he's arrested, no one
- 15:48else will have a photograph of him. We
- 15:50need to make sure. So, that was what was
- 15:51in my mind. That's the
- 15:53It It I know it's it sounds strange
- 15:55because you watch these things on
- 15:57television and it's horrifying and and
- 15:59when I watch it on television, it's
- 16:00horrifying, too. But when you're
- 16:02working, you're just concentrating on
- 16:04one thing at a time, one step at a time.
- 16:07You've got to be there. You You haven't
- 16:08got time really to sit back and think
- 16:11and I've covered
- 16:12some horrific things, you know,
- 16:14Hillsborough and things like that. But
- 16:16you're not sitting there looking at it
- 16:17in the in a big picture. You're sitting
- 16:20one step at a time, just trying to do
- 16:22your job because if journalists do their
- 16:24job professionally one step at a time,
- 16:26then in the long run
- 16:28everyone should benefit. You You haven't
- 16:29really got time to be sitting there
- 16:31thinking, well,
- 16:33my goodness, this might be a murderer.
- 16:35You You
- 16:35You can't I met lots of murderers and so
- 16:37on. I mean,
- 16:39since it's happened and sometimes in the
- 16:42you know, the still of the night when I
- 16:43think about it, I think he probably what
- 16:45he said about how Holly and Jessica
- 16:47would react was probably exactly how
- 16:50Holly and Jessica did react. He probably
- 16:52at that moment was telling the truth.
- 16:54And [snorts] that when they came into
- 16:55the house and whatever he did,
- 16:58that's exactly what happened and and it
- 17:00happened in that house while I was
- 17:02there. But I thought about that since.
- 17:04But at the time,
- 17:06I wasn't thinking like that. I was just
- 17:08really thinking we need to make sure
- 17:10we've got a photograph of him. Uh and I
- 17:12I need to make sure I get out of him as
- 17:14much information as I can and get it
- 17:16written down cuz at some point it'll be
- 17:17useful. I mean, obviously then
- 17:19we would we weren't writing stories
- 17:21saying that he's a suspect or he's done
- 17:23it. It was too we didn't You can't write
- 17:25anything like that, you know.
- 17:27It It was just a matter of waiting until
- 17:29he was arrested, sort of thing. I I I
- 17:31did, you know, it took about a week for
- 17:32them to arrest him, you know.
- 17:35So, there you go. The other odd thing
- 17:36about Huntley, which I don't know if you
- 17:38read about, that
- 17:39So, so that happened at about I
- 17:41interviewed him at about
- 17:44half past 11, 12 o'clock midday on the
- 17:47um
- 17:48on the Thursday after they disappeared,
- 17:50which would have been the 8th. So, the
- 17:51other strange thing that happened was
- 17:53that at about 6:00 on that day, on
- 17:56Thursday the 8th,
- 17:58the local BBC were doing one of those
- 18:00live interviews outside the school, you
- 18:02know, where they have a reporter
- 18:04standing outside saying, you know, like
- 18:07like like the day's today, sort of
- 18:09thing.
- 18:10And
- 18:11the reporter was standing out there with
- 18:13a with one of the producers and the
- 18:15cameraman was all set up outside and a
- 18:18few people was were standing watching
- 18:21the excitement of watching BBC look at
- 18:24do the footage.
- 18:25And there was a a BBC producer there
- 18:28called Debbie Tubby, who's a
- 18:30mate of mine, she still works at the
- 18:31BBC.
- 18:33And they were waiting for a call from
- 18:35the newsroom to say the 6:00 news had
- 18:37finished.
- 18:39We're on, it's half past six. It was
- 18:40about
- 18:4125 past six and her phone rang.
- 18:45And and it was some mundane call. It was
- 18:47her mother ringing to say that, you
- 18:49know, she'd
- 18:51washed her blouse and turned it pink or
- 18:53something mundane. And she said into the
- 18:56phone, "Really?" like that. And Ian
- 18:59Huntley was standing watching the
- 19:01filming and standing near her.
- 19:03And when she when she put put her phone
- 19:05down and put her phone in her pocket, he
- 19:08said to her, "Have they found the the
- 19:10clothes?"
- 19:12And she looked at him and said, "Who are
- 19:13you?" And he said, "Oh, I'm Ian Huntley,
- 19:14the caretaker." And she said, "What did
- 19:16you just sorry say?"
- 19:17"Have they found the girls' clothes?"
- 19:19She said, "Yeah, they found the girls'
- 19:20clothes." Now, she then rang the police
- 19:22and said,
- 19:23"This is very strange. This man called
- 19:25Ian Huntley was standing next to me, and
- 19:26he heard me say really on the phone.
- 19:29And he's just asked me if they've found
- 19:30the girls' clothes."
- 19:31"Well, how does he know the girls
- 19:32haven't got their clothes on them?
- 19:35How does he know the girls' clothes have
- 19:37become separated from them?"
- 19:39So, oddly, on the same day, two
- 19:41journalists rang the police to say that
- 19:43Huntley
- 19:45was saying strange things
- 19:47that I've never come across before. And
- 19:48I didn't know she'd rung the police at
- 19:50that. I'd found out a day or two later,
- 19:52and she didn't know I had.
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