{"id":319673,"date":"2026-02-27T07:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T07:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/319673\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T07:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T07:08:11","slug":"suspect-identified-after-attack-on-soham-killer-ian-huntley-in-prison-workshop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/319673\/","title":{"rendered":"Suspect identified after attack on Soham Killer Ian Huntley in prison workshop"},"content":{"rendered":"

A prisoner in his mid-40s has been identified as a suspect in the attack on Soham killer Ian Huntley at a maximum security jail, police have said.<\/p>\n

Durham Constabulary said a prisoner, understood to be Huntley, was assaulted in the workshop of HMP Frankland near Durham on Thursday morning before being taken to hospital.<\/p>\n

He was treated for head injuries and remains in a serious condition in hospital, the force said on Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for Durham Constabulary said: \u201cThe 52-year-old prisoner who was injured during this morning\u2019s assault in the workshop at HMP Frankland remains in a serious condition in hospital following treatment for head injuries.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolice forensic teams have examined the scene of the attack throughout the day to gather evidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cA suspect, a male prisoner in his mid-40s, has been identified by officers investigating the incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has not been arrested at this stage but remains in detention within the prison.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former caretaker Huntley killed 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman after they left a family barbecue to buy sweets in Soham, Cambridgeshire, on August 4 2002, then dumped their bodies in a ditch.<\/p>\n

The Sun, which first reported the attack, said the killer was knocked unconscious with a metal pole and quoted a source saying his condition was \u201ctouch and go\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"HollyHolly Wells and Jessica Chapman (PA)<\/p>\n

The Press Association understands Huntley was left in a pool of blood after the incident.<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s assault was the latest attempt on Huntley\u2019s life and he was thought to have been kept under close observation to prevent similar attacks.<\/p>\n

He is serving a life sentence with a recommendation that he serves at least 40 years for the murders.<\/p>\n

In 2010, robber Damien Fowkes slashed Huntley with a home-made weapon, causing a \u201csevere, gaping cut to the left side of his neck\u201d with a 7in (18cm) wound which required 21 stitches.<\/p>\n

Fowkes asked a prison officer: \u201cIs he dead? I hope so.\u201d<\/p>\n

He described Huntley as a \u201cnotorious child killer, both inside prison and in society in general\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"HMPHMP Frankland (Tom Wilkinson\/PA)<\/p>\n

Manchester Arena bomb plotter Hashem Abedi is accused of carrying out \u201cterrorist\u201d attacks on prison officers at the maximum security jail with hot cooking oil and makeshift weapons.<\/p>\n

He denies three counts of attempted murder after four officers were injured on April 12.<\/p>\n

Former Lostprophets frontman Ian Watkins died after an alleged attack last October at HMP Wakefield, where he was serving a 29-year sentence for child sexual offences.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Killamarsh killer Damien Bendall was handed another life sentence after he admitted the attempted murder of another Frankland inmate who he attacked with a claw hammer in a prison workshop.<\/p>\n

A prison officer who witnessed the attack thought Bendall, who murdered his partner and three children with a hammer and is serving a whole life tariff, had killed his victim, but he survived.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A prisoner in his mid-40s has been identified as a suspect in the attack on Soham killer Ian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-319673","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}