Soham killer Ian Huntley remains in serious condition after prison attack
Soham killer Ian Huntley remains in hospital in a serious condition after being attacked in prison.
Durham Constabulary said a prisoner, identified as Huntley, was attacked at HMP Frankland’s workshop near Durham on Thursday morning and taken to hospital with head injuries.
A spokesman for the force said on Friday morning: “There was no change in the 52-year-old man’s condition overnight; he remains in hospital in a serious condition.”
According to police, a prisoner in his mid-40s was identified as the suspect in the attack.
Former carer Huntley murdered 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman as they left their family barbecue to buy sweets in Soham, Cambridgeshire, on August 4, 2002, and then dumped their bodies in a ditch.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommendation that he serve at least 40 years for the murders.
Thursday’s attack was the last attempt against Huntley and it was thought he was being kept under close observation to prevent similar attacks.
The Press Association reported that Huntley was left in a bloodbath after the latest incident.
In 2010, robber Damien Fowkes slashed Huntley with a homemade gun, creating a “serious, deep cut on the left side of his neck” with a 7-inch (18 cm) wound requiring 21 stitches.
Fowkes asked a prison officer: “Is he dead? I hope so.”
He described Huntley as “a notorious child murderer both in prison and in society at large”.
Meanwhile, Manchester Arena bomb plotter Hashem Abedi is accused of carrying out “terrorist” attacks on prison officers using hot cooking oil and makeshift weapons at the maximum security prison.
He denies three counts of attempted murder after four officers were injured on April 12.
Former Lostprophets frontman Ian Watkins died following an alleged attack last October at HMP Wakefield, where he was serving a 29-year sentence for child sex offences.
On Monday Killamarsh murderer Damien Bendall was given another life sentence after admitting attempting to murder a Frankland prisoner whom he attacked with a hammer in the prison workshop.
A prison officer who witnessed the attack thought Bendall, who killed his partner and three children with a hammer and was sentenced to life imprisonment, had killed his victim, but he managed to survive.
