Soham murderer Ian Huntley dies after prison attack

Ian Huntley, who killed schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2002, has died in hospital after an attack in prison left him on life support.

Double child murderer Ian Huntley has died in hospital more than a week after being attacked in prison.

The 52 year-old former school caretaker, who was convicted of killing schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Soham, Cambridgeshire in 2002, was admitted to hospital on Thursday 26 February with serious head injuries.

He had been on life support at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary since then. The Sun reported that Huntley’s life support machine had been turned off on Friday, after brain tests showed he was in a vegetative state.

Huntley was serving a life sentence at HMP Frankland in County Durham, when he was attacked by another inmate in the prison’s workshop on Thursday.

According to the Sun, he had been repeatedly over the head by an inmate armed with a metal bar. It was previously reported that Huntley had been left blind after the attack in the workshop of the maximum security prison.

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “The murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman remains one of the most shocking and devastating cases in our nation’s history, and our thoughts are with their families.”

Holly and Jessica, both aged 10, disappeared after leaving a family barbecue to buy sweets in August 2002.

They never returned home, and were found dead nearly two weeks later – with their bodies dumped in a ditch 12 miles away in Suffolk.

Huntley, who was originally from Grimsby in Lincolnshire, lured the girls into his home and murdered them.

He denied the killings but was convicted and sentenced to life in 2003 after an Old Bailey trial.

Durham Constabulary has not identified the suspect but it said on the day of the attack that a man in his mid-40s had been detained.

A spokesman for the force said: “A man who was attacked at HMP Frankland in Durham last week has died in hospital this morning.

“Ian Huntley, 52, was taken to hospital with serious injuries following an incident in the workshop on the morning of Thursday, February 26.

“A police investigation into the circumstances of the incident is ongoing. A file is being prepared for the Crown Prosecution Service for consideration for charges.”

Rapist and murderer Anthony Russell, 43, reportedly shouted “I’ve done it, I’ve done it” after attacking Huntley in the recycling area of the prison.

Russell was sentenced to a whole-life tariff in 2021 for the murders of Julie Williams, 58, and her son David Williams, 32, at separate flats in Coventry, and pregnant 31-year-old Nicole McGregor, who was found in woodland near Leamington Spa three days later.

Russell also raped Ms McGregor.

The Frankland attack was the latest attempt on Huntley’s life and he was thought to have been kept under close observation to prevent such attacks.

In 2010, robber Damien Fowkes slashed him with a home-made weapon, causing a “severe, gaping cut to the left side of his neck” with a 7in (18cm) wound which required 21 stitches.

Fowkes asked a prison officer: “Is he dead? I hope so.”

He described Huntley as a “notorious child killer, both inside prison and in society in general”.

Huntley’s life sentence recommended he serve at least 40 years for the Soham murders.