Soham monster Ian Huntley is hours from death after medics turned his life support machine a week after his prison attack.
The double child killer, 52, was being kept alive by a ventilator after the brutal ambush in HMP Frankland last week.
But medics have reportedly withdrawn it after speaking to his mum Lynda Richards, who was at his bedside on Friday.
The fiend, who was serving life for the murders of schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2002, was said to have just hours left after his vital life support was switched off at lunch time.
Mum Lynda, 71 — the sole relative to visit him in hospital — was with him as his pitiful life slipped away after brain tests showed he was in a vegetative state.
Huntley was understood to have been able to “shallow breathe” without life support. But he is not expected so survive for more than 24 hours. A source told the Sun: “This is it, this is the end of Huntley. He is effectively dead and, at the best, is drawing his last breaths.
“No one who has dealt with him is shedding a tear. Even his mother has accepted that this is for the best, having seen him and knowing what a state he is in. He never really recovered from the beating he took, and never stood much of a chance of doing so.
“Huntley had been attacked loads of times in prison so the day he was killed was always likely to arrive.”
We told earlier how doctors were weighing up whether it was time to finally switch off the machine that was keeping him alive to allow him to die.
Huntley was reportedly left blinded by the savage attack inside the tough jail, dubbed Monster Mansion, in the North East. He was given just 5% of survival after being attacked in a prison workshop with a 3ft spiked metal pole.
He was said to have been hit 15 times during the battering as fellow lags watched on and cheered as his attacker was led away in cuffs.
Mum Lynda, who supported at hospital by a pal and liaison officers, told friends Huntley was “unrecognisable” following the attack. She also told pals she knew “flags will fly high” if he dies due to his heinous crimes and “part of me hopes he passes away this time”.
Huntley was jailed in 2003 for the murder of ten-year-old pals Holly and Jessica, who attended the school where the monster worked as a caretaker.
Their disappearance gripped the nation and their missing person’s poster – which featured the youngster in matching Man United shirts – broke the hearts of every parent in the country.
In a sick twist, it emerged Huntley – who was interviewed numerous times on tv as cops searched for the girls – had killed them on the night they vanished.
Hated Huntley, who had been in an induced coma since the assault, had been attacked three times before in prison and had angered fellow inmates by strutting around the jail in a red football shirt the number 10 on the back.
Durham Police are probing the attack but are yet to make any arrests. Reports claim the beating was carried out by triple killer Anthony Russell, who also raped a pregnant woman.
He was said to have gloated “I’ve done it, I’ve done it, I’ve killed him” after carrying out the frenzied attack last Thursday.
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