Ian Huntley told woman pen pal ‘I’ve had a lot to deal with lately’ in letter written eight days before double child killer was fatally struck by 3ft metal pole in jail
Double child murderer Ian Huntley wrote to his pen pal eight days before he was beaten to death with a metal pole by a fellow prisoner, telling him he had ‘a lot to deal with lately’.
The Soham killer became one of Britain’s most notorious criminals after murdering ten-year-old schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2002.
The 52-year-old man was killed by a 3ft pole from a recycling center and suffered catastrophic skull injuries during an ambush behind bars in the prison wing.
But just a week before the attack, Huntley had written a self-pitying letter to a female pen pal, suggesting he was having a hard time in prison in County Durham.
Huntley attempted to kill himself in prison twice, in 2003 before his trial and in Wakefield Prison in 2006.
He was also the target of attacks by other prisoners and had his throat cut twice.
In a letter he saw SunThe paranoid criminal stated that he could be targeted again.
He wrote: ‘I’m sorry I haven’t written sooner but I’ve had a lot to deal with lately. ‘I hate writing letters at the best of times.’
Huntley, 52, was serving a life sentence for murdering ten-year-old schoolgirls Holly and Jessica in 2002 at his home in the Cambridgeshire market town of Soham, which became notorious for its vile crimes.
Holly Wells (left) and Jessica Chapman (right) were murdered by Huntley in Soham, Cambridgeshire, in 2002.
Huntley thanked his pen pal for sending him a birthday card on Jan. 31 and then said he did not want permission to visit him in prison.
He told the woman he didn’t want her to be ‘harmed’ because of her connection to him.
This message was his last as he was ‘torn to pieces like a mouse’ in the attack on 26 February.
I’m Sam Greenhill, Chief Correspondent, and nearly 25 years ago I had an encounter with murderer Ian Huntley that still chills me.
Huntley is one of Britain’s most notorious child murderers. But that was the last thing on my mind when I was invited to his home for tea and biscuits days before his arrest for the Soham Murders. I wrote about this in the Crime Squad newsletter – sign up to read for free.
Huntley died at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle on Saturday after his life support machine was switched off on Friday.
The killer was so hateful that even his own daughter called for his ashes to be ‘flushed down the toilet’.
The former schoolkeeper was attacked at around 9.30am during a waste management workshop at HMP Frankland.
Multiple prison sources believe triple murderer Anthony Russell, 43, is suspected of launching the attack on Huntley.
Huntley reportedly lay in a pool of his own blood following the brutal attack.
A source previously told the Daily Mail that a fight broke out between Huntley and a fellow inmate in his wing, who then “took a metal bar from a waste metal crate and hit Huntley in the head three times.”
Huntley was feared dead at the scene due to the extent of his injuries and concerns that he was ‘not breathing’, but he was put into a medically induced coma by paramedics and taken to hospital.
Prisoners were said to have been cheering for Russell as he was led away in handcuffs following the attack.
It was also reported that the attacker shouted ‘I did it, I did it’. I killed him. ‘I killed him.’
This weekend prison sources told The Mail that the issue of Huntley’s next of kin had caused ‘discord’ in the family.
The decision to turn off life support had to be her daughter, Samantha Bryan’s.
But Ms. Bryan had never met her father, so it was left to her mother, Lynda Richards.
Triple killer Anthony Russell (pictured), 43, is suspected of leading the attack
A few days after the attack he had driven 275 miles from his home in Lincolnshire to the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle.
Huntley’s mother Lynda Richards, 71, said her son looked ‘unrecognisable’.
He admitted that ‘part of me hopes he dies’ as he was attacked multiple times while serving his sentence.
Huntley was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum sentence of 40 years in prison in December 2003. Judges told him he had ‘little or no hope’ of being released.
This was Huntley’s third and final attack in prison.
In 2005, fellow murderer Mark Hobson also poured boiling water on himself in Wakefield Prison.
Last year it was reported that Huntley made an apparent vile taunt of his victims by wearing a red Manchester United football jersey in prison, angering other inmates.
In 2010, another inmate slit Huntley’s throat, requiring 21 stitches, and in 2005, a convicted murderer poured boiling water on him.
In an image seared into the nation’s consciousness, the two victims were seen wearing Manchester United jerseys in a photo taken shortly before they were killed.
The schoolgirls, who were best friends, went out to buy candy on the afternoon of August 4, 2002; School guard Huntley brought them to his home, killed them, and then threw their bodies in a ditch 12 miles away.
He would later return and try to set them on fire.
They were not discovered until more than a week after they disappeared; Meanwhile, nearly 400 police officers met with residents to search for the missing teenagers.
Their disappearance following a family barbecue sent shockwaves through the close-knit community and became one of the most sickening child murders the country has ever seen.
Suspicions about Huntley were raised after it was revealed that he had told a journalist in morbid detail how girls might react to being abducted by a stranger.
Reporter Brian Farmer, then working for the Press Association in East Anglia, interviewed Huntley and became so concerned afterwards that he went to the police.
Mr Farmer, who had initially hoped to speak to Carr, was surprised when Huntley began telling him in detail how he imagined girls would react to a stranger approaching them – even though he did not know them or worked at the school.
The reporter later recalled: ‘The main thing that struck me when he answered the question was: So how could he know how they would react?’
Judge Moses told Huntley at the hearing: ‘Ian Kevin Huntley, on 4 August 2002 you lured two 10-year-old girls, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, into your home.
‘They were happy, smart and loyal. They were loved by their families and everyone who knew them.
‘You killed them both. ‘You’re the only one who knows how you killed them, you’re the only one who knows why.’
He eventually died without revealing the full truth about the girls’ deaths; just a sanitized version.
He told the court that both girls died accidentally, claiming Holly drowned in the bath and Jessica accidentally strangled her as she tried to muffle her screams.
However, in 2018 he admitted to deliberately killing Jessica to prevent her from raising the alarm. To the chagrin of her family, Holly always maintained that her death was an accident.
Huntley initially claimed that the couple left his home alive, but later admitted that they dumped their bodies in a remote ditch, cut off their clothes and burned their bodies to cover their tracks.
During the 13-day search to find the girls, Huntley was filmed saying he was probably the last person to see them on the day they disappeared, and expressed his condolences to the families.
Huntley’s 27-year-old daughter Samantha Bryan called for his ashes to be ‘flushed down the toilet’
Huntley appeared to have resigned himself to the fact that he would die in prison, as leaked tape recordings of his conversations behind bars revealed.
In 2018, a recording of a phone call in which Huntley confessed to the murders and made a humble apology was leaked to The Sun.
He told a friend: ‘I’m sorry for what I did, I’m sorry for the pain I’ve caused Holly and Jessica’s families and friends, I’m sorry for the pain I’ve caused my family and friends and I’m sorry for the pain I’ve caused the community of Soham.
‘I am truly sorry and it breaks my heart to be told that I have no regrets; I enjoy something. I do not.’
He said he thought the girls would turn 18 and 21.
Huntley continued: ‘I know that no matter what I say, people won’t think better of me. I know that, I don’t expect it, but I’d rather people know the truth about my feelings.
‘I have nothing to gain by saying these. I know I’ll never get out. ‘I accepted that from day one.’
Dubbed the ‘Monster Manor’, HMP Frankland houses some of Britain’s worst criminals, including murderers, rapists and terrorists who are known to turn on each other.
The Category A prison is home to the likes of Wayne Couzens, Levi Bellfield and Michael Adebolajo, one of the two terrorists who killed British Army soldier Lee Rigby.
HMP Frankland’s A Wing is staffed with prisoners at risk of being attacked by other inmates, such as sex offenders or jailed police officers, a prison source said.
And in order to protect them, they are moved around the prison in groups and kept separate from other prisoners.
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: ‘The murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman remain one of the most shocking and devastating cases in our nation’s history and our thoughts are with their families.’
