Ian Huntley to be marked man eternally if ‘he survives’ as he is now ‘even higher reward’
Child murderer Ian Huntley is still fighting for his life in an Intensive Care Unit after he was brutally attacked by another inmate behind bars.
The killer was attacked from behind when he bent down to tie some string on a recycling crate, Earlier this month, and he remains under the watchful eye of doctors who are continuing to try and keep him alive.
The Soham killer was struck up to 15 times with a metal spike as shocked inmates watched on and it is understood he is virtually “unrecognisable”, such was the brutality of the attack on one of Britain’s most hated men.
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Triple killer Anthony Russell, 43, is suspected of carrying out the brutal assault and is understood to be “gutted” Huntley is not dead as he remains in an induced coma in hospital. His chances of survival are said to be just 5% and “dwindling by the day”.
And now a prison insider has lifted the lid exclusively to the Daily Star, revealing that his “life as he knows it is pretty much over however he wants to look at it.” Prison sources have revealed how Huntley will likely “never see the light of day again” without a chaperone, and will “more than likely find himself as a ‘bigger target than ever’.
“Should he live, and that’s looking slim to no chance at the moment from what I am being told, Huntley’s life is already over as far as he knows it,” they revealed. “The street value of taking his life has just doubled. There is no way he makes a full recovery, and even if he does – it will mean he spends the rest of his life in maximum security in a lone cell, unable to mix with any other prisoner.
“He will be in solitary for life. It will be the only way that bosses can keep him safe. That means he will be costing more to keep locked up than ever before too.”
The prison insider said that by surviving, Huntley is likely to be seen as an “even better reward” for those wanting to make their mark while serving time. “Any prisoner convicted of a child sex crime is a target for other inmates, and the more notorious the crime, the bigger the name almost, the better it is for someone trying to off him,” they revealed.
“The court may have handed down their justice, but justice behind bars is something altogether different. It is street justice. From his first day in inside, there was a price on Huntley’s head – not a monetary one, but the idea of being the one to take down a child killer like Huntley, that would give you legendary status inside.
“So if he ever makes it back, the price on his head will be even bigger. By surviving, he will have made himself an even bigger target.”
The insider added that because so much time had passed since the horror murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, it is likely the threat to Huntley was deemed as lower than it actually was by prison chiefs.
“He has not been attacked in a while,” the source continued. “So Huntley would have been around other prisoners, probably more freely with each year that passed. Of course we know he is always a target, but as time goes on, that security risk lowers the longer it goes on with him being safe.
“But of course, as this proves, it just takes one inmate, and one moment, for that all to change.”
It is believed that Huntley was being held on Rule 43, a prison’s unit for vulnerable inmates, mostly sex offenders, but police informants too. “That does not mean he is safe though of course,” our insider added. “He still has to mix. But should he ever recover, there is no way he ever gets to mix again. He will live out the rest of his days a very lonely man.
“And that’s if he survives at all. it is fair to say it is a miserable end no matter how you look at it.”
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