944 Quotes by Stephen Richards

Although I was in the cold water and my teeth were chattering, I could feel perspiration running down my forehead as visions of failure swan around in my head. Although I was not the first, I felt that I was the first and would celebrate when I’d accomplished my goal. My focus was on reaching the other side of the Solent.

I used self-injury as a coping mechanism to help me overcome the emotional stress that I was incapable of dealing with in any other way. Self-injury was a means of escape, a way to relieve the numbness, and an expression of the pain within me. Something that the police wouldn’t care about.

Over the next sixteen years, I would grow close to the ringleaders of the infamous Peterhead Prison Riot and hostage-taking incidents would loom large in my life.

I had no reason to feel wary of Huntley.There were no warning signs or anything like that. Little did I know there were allegations against Huntley going back as far as August 1995 ....

The following month two further allegations against Huntley had been reported to social services by the families of other girls. On no occasion was there evidence upon which to prosecute Huntley. They say there is none so blind as those that refuse to see. I say there is none so blind as North East Lincolnshire Social Services and the Humberside Police Force.

I believe that all sex offenders, and especially those with multiple allegations against them, should be made known to the locality where they live.

I had not learned anything about Huntley that wouldhave alerted me to what he was. I had no reason, as an 11-year-old girl, to be wary of him. No one said, ‘This guy likes to have sex with young girls.

My brother Hayden’s friendship with James Webberwould be the catalyst for a fateful and accidentalmeeting between me and the future Soham killer IanHuntley.

Another crucial problem was errors made by theCambridgeshire Police in their use of their ‘checksystem’, which allowed Huntley to get a job at SohamVillage College.