Police give update as Ian Huntley seriously ill after prison attack
Soham killer Ian Huntley remains seriously ill three days after he was attacked with a metal bar by an inmate in the workshop of a maximum security prison.
Durham Police Service said Sunday afternoon that the hospital situation did not change overnight.
A spokesman said: “The 52-year-old man remains in a serious condition in hospital with no changes overnight.”
Triple killer Anthony Russell is alleged to have shouted “I did it, I did it” after Huntley, 52, was repeatedly struck in the head at HMP Frankland in Durham last Thursday morning, according to reports.
Police declined to identify the suspect but said on the day of the alleged attack, a man in his mid-40s was detained in prison but had not yet been arrested.
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 4 August 2002. He threw their bodies into a ditch.
Russell was sentenced to life rates in 2021 for the murders of Julie Williams, 58, and her son David Williams, 32, at separate flats in Coventry and the murder of pregnant Nicole McGregor, 31, who was found in woodland near Leamington Spa three days later.
Russell also raped Ms McGregor.
Thursday’s attack was the latest attempt against Huntley, and it was thought he was kept under close observation to prevent such attacks.
In 2010 robber Damien Fowkes slashed her with a homemade gun, creating a “serious, deep cut on the left side of her neck”, a 7-inch (18 cm) wound that required 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”.
Huntley’s life sentence required him to serve at least 40 years in prison for the Soham murders.
