He will be cremated with no service or mourners before his ashes are taken to a top secret location
Soham murderer Ian Huntley will have no funeral, with his body to be cremated and his ashes scattered in secret.
The child killer died earlier this month following a savage attack in jail, where he had been serving a life sentence with a minimum term of 40 years for murdering best friends Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2002.
The 52-year-old died on March 7 after he was allegedly bludgeoned with a metal bar in a workshop at HMP Frankland on February 26 by a fellow inmate. Huntley, who never regained consciousness after suffering head injuries, had previously survived multiple attacks. His life support was switched off on March 6 and he died the following day.
Now The Sun reports he will be cremated with no service or mourners before his ashes are taken to a top secret location with his family declining a state-funded funeral out of respect for his victims’ families.
On funding cremations, the latest Ministry of Justice guidelines for prisons stipulate: “Prisons must offer to pay a contribution towards reasonable funeral expenses of up to £3,000. The only exceptions to this are where the family has a pre-paid funeral plan or is entitled to claim a grant from other government departments e.g., Department of Work and Pensions.”
On funding cremations, the latest Ministry of Justice guidelines for prisons stipulate: “Prisons must offer to pay a contribution towards reasonable funeral expenses of up to £3,000. The only exceptions to this are where the family has a pre-paid funeral plan or is entitled to claim a grant from other government departments e.g., Department of Work and Pensions.”
Reasonable fees would include undertaker charges, coffin expenses, hearse hire, cremation or burial costs and religious or belief leader payments. The contribution cannot cover headstones, floral tributes, obituary advertisements or wake expenses.
A source told The Sun: “There will be no service, no memorial, no mourners, nothing. It is as it should be. There will be no funeral. How could there be after what he did?
“He will simply be cremated and his ashes handed to his family. They have always been utterly appalled by what he did. It was unforgivable and, for those reasons, they could not in good conscience hold a funeral.”
His ashes will reportedly be scattered in secrecy amid fears of reprisals.
It comes after Huntley’s daughter Samantha Bryan said the killer should “burn in hell” and didn’t deserve a funeral. She said: “We should flush his ashes down the toilet.”
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