Soham father: 10 years have not healed the pain

Monday 23 July 2012

The father of murdered Soham schoolgirl Holly Wells has said time does not heal the pain of her loss but has vowed to "make it out the other side".

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Kevin Wells said that while his grief at losing Holly, who was murdered 10 years ago by Ian Huntley along with her friend Jessica Chapman, has not diminished, he had learned to live the tragedy.

The 48-year-old told the makers of an ITV documentary the murder took his family to breaking point and nearly destroyed his marriage to wife Nicola, 45.He said: "Time doesn't heal – someone got that wrong. It anaesthetises. Grief does not diminish, but you can manage the intensity and learn to live with it."Murder has the capacity to destroy more lives than the one taken. I recognised that from the start, so I tried to take control, to make plans and to exert positive thoughts. "I chose to believe in the future, a future I could craft from the life we once had. Really, all I wanted was for us to be the ones who'd make it out the other side."Mr Wells revealed the couple, who had been together for 20 years when Holly was murdered, struggled to support each other as they "processed their grief at different speeds".However, he said, "slowly but surely" they came back together as a couple."They say 95% of the parents of murdered children split up ... we were determined to be among the 5% who survive," he said.They also struggled financially after Mr Wells sold his window-cleaning business to focus on the trial, forcing the couple to remortgage their house.It was when he re-started his business in 2005 that the family began to get back on track.He said: "Getting back to work was not just about money in the bank, it was also about what it represented – an everyday life, a familiar pattern, some kind of control."l Soham: A Parents' Tale will be screened on ITV1 at 9pm on August 3.

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Soham father: 10 years have not healed the pain

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