Ian Huntley, the Soham double murderer who killed two ten-year-old girls in 2002, is fighting for his life in hospital after being attacked in prison.
Huntley, 52, was found lying in a pool of blood in a workshop in HMP Frankland in Co Durham at about 9am on Thursday after a fellow prisoner allegedly attacked him with a metal pole.
He was rushed to hospital and a Prison Service source told The Times that his condition remained life-threatening on Thursday evening and that he was being treated for serious head injuries. He had been hit on the head by an inmate with a spiked metal pole, according to The Sun, which first reported the assault.
Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were best friends
PA
A source told the newspaper that his condition was “touch and go”, adding: “It was absolute chaos and Huntley was in a terrible state. I’m amazed someone was able to get anywhere near him because he is usually really closely protected.
“They must have timed it when he wasn’t with prison officers and must have used a weapon to injure him so severely.”
• Ian Huntley: a callous killer who put Soham families through hell
It is not clear how a prisoner had access to a spiked metal pole in one of Britain’s most secure prisons. HMP Frankland is nicknamed “monster mansion” as it holds some of the country’s most dangerous criminals, including Wayne Couzens, who abducted, raped and murdered Sarah Everard in 2021, and the serial killer Levi Bellfield.
Huntley is serving a life sentence for killing the ten-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2002, and is supposed to be under close guard as his crimes make him a target.
• How I caught Soham killer Ian Huntley — using pollen and weeds
A prisoner in his mid-forties has been identified as a suspect and remains in detention at HMP Frankland, but has not been arrested.
A spokesman for Durham police said: “The 52-year-old prisoner who was injured during this morning’s assault in the workshop at HMP Frankland remains in a serious condition in hospital following treatment for head injuries.
“Police forensic teams have examined the scene of the attack throughout the day to gather evidence. A suspect, a male prisoner in his mid-forties, has been identified by officers investigating the incident. He has not been arrested at this stage but remains in detention within the prison.”
Huntley has been attacked by inmates at least three times before. He was attacked in 2005 by the convicted murderer Mark Hobson who threw boiling water over him at HMP Wakefield.
In 2010, Damien Fowkes, a robber, slashed Huntley with a home-made weapon, causing a “severe gaping cut to the left side of his neck” that was 18cm long and required 21 stitches. Fowkes asked a prison officer: “Is he dead? I hope so.”
In 2018, Huntley said that an inmate had tried to kill him in his cell after he was attacked with a “razor blade on a toothbrush”. Details of the alleged incident have never been made public, but in a leaked recording of Huntley explained on tape that the prisoner “came into my cell armed with a weapon and tried to cut my throat”. He added: “I managed to kick him in the chest and then to the stomach. I took the weapon off him and he was on the floor.”
The latest attack on Huntley is the second serious attack in HMP Frankland in the past year, but the Ministry of Justice said it did not plan to impose extra safeguards. Last year Hashem Abedi, brother of the Manchester Arena bomber, was charged with the attempted murder of three prison guards in an alleged attack last April. He is accused of attacking officers in one of the separation centres in the jail with hot cooking oil and baking trays.
• Plans to put most violent prisoners in US-style ‘supermax’ jails
The incident prompted an overhaul of how prisons in England and Wales detain terrorists. Abedi, who is serving a separate life sentence for helping his brother, Salman Abedi, plan the Manchester Arena attack, has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
On Monday, the Killamarsh killer, Damien Bendall, was given another life sentence after he admitted the attempted murder of another Frankland inmate, whom he attacked with a claw hammer in a prison workshop.
A prison officer who witnessed that attack initially thought that Bendall, who murdered his partner and three children with a hammer and is now serving a whole life tariff, had killed his victim.
In October, the former Lostprophets front man Ian Watkins died after an alleged attack at HMP Wakefield, where he was serving a 29-year sentence for child sexual offences.
A Prison Service spokesman said after the latest attack on Huntley: “A prisoner is receiving treatment after an incident at HMP Frankland on Thursday morning. It would be inappropriate to comment further while police investigate.”