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Double child killer Ian Huntley has died after being bludgeoned to death with a ‘spiked metal pole’ bar in a prison workshop.
The Soham murderer had been serving life in prison for murdering ten-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in his home in Cambridgeshire in 2002.
Huntley, 52, was transported to hospital after being targeted in a behind-bars ambush on his prison wing, which saw him hit with the metal weapon and ‘ripped apart like a rat’, according to a woman who visited the prison previously. He was left with catastrophic skull injuries.
The Ministry of Justice confirmed that Huntley died at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary this morning, around 8.45am it is understood.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: ‘The murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman remains one of the most shocking and devastating cases in our nation’s history, and our thoughts are with their families.’
A spokesman for Durham Constabulary said: ‘A man who was attacked at HMP Frankland in Durham last week has died in hospital this morning.
‘Ian Huntley, 52, was taken to hospital with serious injuries following an incident in the workshop on the morning of Thursday, February 26.
‘A police investigation into the circumstances of the incident is ongoing.
Huntley, 52, was serving life for murdering 10-year-olds Holly and Jessica in his home in Soham, a Cambridgeshire market town made infamous by his vile crimes in 2002
It is suspected that Anthony Russell (pictured), a 43-year-old triple murderer, was the one who led the assault
Holly Wells (left) and Jessica Chapman (right) were both murdered by Huntley in Soham, Cambridgeshire in 2002
Doctors were previously considering switching off Huntley’s ventilator after he did not respond to treatment, with the source saying doctors ‘have worked wonders’ to keep him alive as long as they did.
‘A file is being prepared for the Crown Prosecution Service for consideration for charges.’
Yesterday, Huntley’s mother, Lynda Richards, 71, was at his bedside after his life support was switched off at lunchtime on Friday following brain tests which showed he was in a vegetative state.
Medics reportedly turned off the ventilator that was keeping him alive after consultations with his mother, who is understood to be the only relative to have visited him in hospital.
A source said: ‘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.’
The former school teacher was attacked at around 9.30am on February 26 during a waste management workshop at HMP Frankland.
Triple murderer, Anthony Russell, 43, is suspected of having launched the assault on Huntley, multiple prison sources believe.
HMP Frankland on February 26, after Ian Huntley was attacked inside by another inmate
Holly Wells (right) and Jessica Chapman (left), both 10, were killed by Huntley in 2002 in a double murder which horrified the nation
Huntley (left) was convicted of the murders after pleading not guilty. His girlfriend at the time Maxine Carr (right) gave him a false alibi but turned on him in the witness box
Medics gave Huntley, a former school caretaker, a five per cent chance of survival.
Prisoners were said to have been cheering the inmate on as he was led away in handcuffs, shouting: ‘I’ve done it, I’ve done it. I’ve killed him. I’ve killed him.’
A source previously told the Daily Mail that the fight had broken out between Huntley and a fellow inmate on his wing, who then ‘got a metal bar from the waste metal crates and smashed Huntley three times in the head with it’.
They added: ‘It was a very, very serious injury, having been struck on the skull like that.’
He was left in a pool of his own blood and prison officers believed he had died then and there because he was ‘not breathing’, but paramedics were able to put him into a medically induced coma and transport him to hospital.
His mother travelled 175 miles from her Lincolnshire home to his bedside and said he looked ‘unrecognisable’.
She confessed, ‘part of me hopes he dies’ as he had been attacked so many times while serving his sentence.
In 2022, Huntley’s suspected killer Russell was charged with the murder of Julie Williams and her son David Williams as well as the rape and murder of pregnant Nicole McGregor.
West Midlands Police believed he strangled Mr Williams with a lanyard under the ‘mistaken belief that he was in a relationship with his girlfriend’, before going on to inflict 113 separate injuries on his mother, Julie.
He later went on to assault and murder Ms McGregor, who was five months pregnant, just hours after she had shown him a picture of her baby scan. He then pretended to help her partner look for her.
Huntley was feared to have died at the scene due to the extent of his injuries as well as worries that he was ‘not breathing’, but he was placed in a medically induced coma by paramedics and taken to hospital.
One woman, who visited an inmate living alongside Huntley, told the Daily Mail it looked like the double child killer had been ‘ripped apart like a rat’, and that he had been left ‘in a bad, bad way’.
‘I shouldn’t say it, but it’s what he deserves,’ she added.
Meanwhile, The Sun also reported the cheers emanating from him as well as fellow inmates in the aftermath of the attack.
Another source said the double killer’s condition immediately after as ‘touch and go’ and described the scene on the wing as ‘absolute chaos’.
Anthony Russell was charged with the rape and murder of Nicole McGregor (pictured) near Leamington Spa, who was five months pregnant at the time
Anthony Russell was charged with the murder of David Williams (pictured left) and his mother Julie Williams (right)
It is believed a fight ensued between the two inmates, with Russell swinging a metal pole at Huntley, which hit him with such force that part of the bar was lodged inside him.
An air ambulance was seen landing near to HMP Frankland as the incident unfolded, but was not used to transport Huntley.
Frankland, dubbed ‘Monster Mansion‘, holds some of Britain’s worst criminals including murderers, rapists and terrorists are known for turning on each other.
The Category A prison is home to the likes of Wayne Couzens, Levi Bellfield and Michael Adebolajo, one of two terrorists who killed British Army soldier Lee Rigby.
A prison source said Wing A of HMP Frankland is made up of inmates at risk of attack from other prisoners, such as sex offenders or jailed police officers.
And in a bid to protect them, they are moved around the prison as a group and are kept segregated from other inmates.
This was the third and final time Huntley was attacked in jail. In 2010, his throat was slashed with a homemade weapon, and in 2005, another inmate threw boiling water over him.
Last year, he was said to have been strutting around the jail wearing a No 10 Manchester United-style shirt in an apparent vile taunt about his victims.
A photo of Holly and Jessica wearing the football shirts, taken on the same day Hurley lured them into his home, became synonymous with the search to find them at the time.
Last April, Manchester Arena bomb plotter Hashem Abedi allegedly attacked several Frankland prison officers with hot cooking oil and makeshift weapons.
Abedi pleaded not guilty at the Old Bailey last October to the attempted murders of three prison officers and assaulting a fourth. He is set to go on trial next January.
And recently ex-cage fighter Damien Bendall – already serving a whole-life tariff for killing his pregnant partner and three children – was handed a further life sentence for a hammer attack on a fellow inmate at Frankland with a claw hammer in May 2024.
School caretaker Huntley lured Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman into his home and murdered them in 2002, before dumping their bodies in a ditch some 12 miles away.
He would later return and attempt to set fire to them.
They were not discovered until more than a week after they went missing, by which time some 400 police officers had joined with local residents to search for the missing youngsters.
Holly and Jessica, who were best friends, had gone out to buy sweets on the afternoon of August 4, 2002, when he lured them into his three-bedroom cottage.
Their disappearance after 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 he appeared to tell one journalist in morbid detail how the girls might react to being taken by a stranger.
He was convicted in 2003 of both murders, having pleaded not guilty. Huntley was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 40 years.
Julie Williams and her son David (pictured) had more than 150 injuries between them after being killed by Anthony Russell in two separate violent attacks in Coventry, a court previously heard
His then-fiancée Maxine Carr, who was a teaching assistant at the girls’ school, would also be jailed for three-and-a-half years after giving her partner a false alibi in a bid to help him evade justice.
She famously turned on her partner at court and Huntley was convicted, having tried to claim he had killed both girls accidentally.
He lied that Holly had drowned in his bath and that he had accidentally suffocated Jessica while attempting to stop her from screaming.
The case prompted an inquiry into how Huntley slipped through police vetting procedures despite a string of sex allegations made against him in his hometown, Grimsby, in the late 1990s.
The report from the inquiry revealed a ‘deeply shocking’ catalogue of errors across all organisations that had contact with Huntley before he murdered Holly and Jessica.
It made 31 recommendations to improve intelligence sharing, police information systems and employment vetting nationwide.
Huntley has previously been attacked in prison, most notably by armed robber Damien Fowkes in 2010, who slashed his throat.
Using a home-made weapon, Fowkes slashed him causing a ‘severe gaping cut to the left side of his neck’.
The wound was 7in (18cm) long and required 21 stitches.
At the time Fowkes asked a prison officer: ‘Is he dead? I hope so.’
A fellow prisoner also attempted to shank Huntley in an ambush in 2018.
In 2005, fellow murderer Mark Hobson also threw boiling water over him in Wakefield Prison.
His crimes continue to cause outrage behind bars, as has Huntley’s brazen behaviour while on remand.
Last year prison guards stormed Huntley’s cell after he was spotted wearing a red Manchester United-style shirt with the number 10 on the back.
He was accused of brazenly taunting the families of his victims, as the girls themselves had been wearing Manchester United tops at the time of their disappearance, aged 10. The top was later confiscated.
In 2018, Huntley appeared to confess to deliberately killing Jessica to stop her from raising the alarm. He continued to insist that Holly’s death was an accident.
After Carr had served her prison sentence, she was released in 2004 with a brand new identity.
Responding to the incident, a North East Ambulance Service spokesperson said: ‘We received a call at 9:23am to reports of an incident at HMP Frankland in County Durham.
‘We despatched two ambulance crews to the scene and requested support from the Great North Air Ambulance Service.
‘One patient was transported to hospital by road.’