Ian Huntley’s young victims endured their final moments trapped in sheer terror, and a remarkably similar fate has now befallen their evil killer.
Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were just 10 years old when their school caretaker Huntley enticed them into his home, murdered them, and stripped their bodies before incinerating and placing them in a makeshift grave in 2002.
The girls were utterly defenceless, and in a cruel twist of fate, so in turned out would become Huntley when he was brutally attacked by a fellow prisoner within the walls of HMP Frankland, the notoriously harsh County Durham jail.
The child murderer has now died eight days after he was reportedly battered from behind 15 times with a spiked metal shank whilst crouched down during a prison workshop.
The alleged killer is believed to be triple killer Anthony Russell, who allegedly boasted, “I’ve killed him” as he was escorted away from the horrific scene in restraints.
Huntley was labouring in the segregated wing when he was struck in the skull with a metal bar fashioned from recycling materials. Sources revealed to The Sun that fellow inmates were aware “the attack was coming” and had discussed it the previous evening, reports the Mirror.
“The attack was unbelievably savage – more savage than has so far been reported. It is astonishing that Huntley is still alive,” a source revealed. “He was bending down tying some string onto a recycling crate when he was first hit – so was in a position like you’d be in when tying your shoelaces.”
One woman visiting a prisoner housed alongside Huntley told the publication that the attack saw him “ripped apart like a rat”.
She added: “He’s in a bad, bad way. I shouldn’t say it, but it’s what he deserves.”
Sources revealed how medics “worked miracles” to save Huntley, who was initially thought to be dead after being discovered lying in a pool of blood. Given merely a five per cent chance of survival, he was put into a coma.
“He was placed in an induced coma because he was so close to death,” a source told The Mirror. “The team from the helicopter travelled with him but he could not be evacuated by air in case of any complications. He was transported by road because he was in a coma; this helps to keep him stable. Two armed officers are guarding Huntley around the clock at the hospital.
“When it first happened, he was totally unresponsive and could not breathe,” another source said. “It was absolute chaos, and Huntley was in a terrible state. I’m amazed someone was able to get anywhere near him because he is usually really closely protected. They must have timed it when he wasn’t with prison officers and must have used a weapon to injure him so severely.”
Huntley’s mother Lynda made a clandestine trip to his hospital bed, where he lay connected to life support.
She allegedly failed to recognise him due to the severity of his injuries, which encompassed brain damage, fractured skull and a shattered jaw. “She’s understandably torn by what has happened but it was a harrowing experience for her,” a source revealed to The Sun.
“He’s been attacked on so many occasions and she now thinks it might be better if he didn’t pull through. It’s an extraordinarily difficult thing for her to come to terms with. Part of her just hopes he passes away this time.”
In a bleak development regarding Huntley’s state, on Friday evening it emerged that doctors had removed the life support machine sustaining him, after discussions with his mother. Sources informed The Sun that the choice was made around midday following brain scans which revealed he was in a vegetative condition and sightless.
They additionally alleged his mum remained at his bedside.
A source revealed: “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.”
Whilst an induced coma might seem like blissful respite, those who’ve endured one describe it as far from tranquil. British television presenter Richard Bacon endured 11 nights in an induced coma whilst fighting a severe lung infection in 2018.
From paralysis and vivid hallucinations to the brutal process of regaining consciousness, the TV personality chillingly disclosed that he remained aware and could recognise events unfolding around him during his unconscious state.
“One of the drugs they use to put you under is hallucinogenic and you take in things. You can hear conversations in a coma and start to piece together a story,” he disclosed on Radio 5 Live. “There were things I could remember that were accurate and then things that were nonsense – my brain stitched together a new reality.”
His relatives put the World Cup on the television for him – segments of which he recalled. He also recognised particular doctors’ voices upon awakening.
Even more alarming, the father-of-two described how medical staff required multiple attempts to induce the coma initially.
“They were struggling to get me under, they had to use so many different needles,” he explained. “They used so many sedatives, they paralysed me.”
Following seven days in an induced coma, medics tried to rouse him – a gruelling process that stretched over 14 agonising hours.
Failing to recognise a soul, Richard erupted into such a terrified fury that staff were forced to physically restrain him before sedating him once more for an additional two days. “They brought me out after seven days, they called my wife Rebecca, turned off all the sedatives and its hours and hours later before you rejoin the world,” he recalled.
“Rebeca had to put kids to bed so I woke up surrounded by strangers. I was kicking off to point they had to restrain me, was confused and frightened. In the end they put me back under and brought me back out two days later.”
Though he conquered the infection, the mental trauma lingered and he required counselling to distinguish between reality and hallucination. During his rehabilitation, he revealed: “As the therapist explained, I’m still in the thick of it. I can’t eat properly, I don’t sleep properly. The infection is completely gone but the psychological scars need dealing with.”
Online platforms like Reddit are flooded with personal accounts of coma experiences, with one person describing it as the ‘longest, scariest dream’ of their existence. Terrifying visions are commonplace, with one individual remembering: “I dreamed/hallucinated that my younger sister was dead, cut in half, and they were making me lay on her severed body. When I woke up the first thing I asked was how she died and everyone looked at me like I was crazy.
“There were actually many times I believed they put a random dead body in my bed. Another one I had was about the nurses encasing me in concrete, I was paralyzed so that’s just how my brain processed it. I was aware of people talking to me and being with me, I just couldn’t communicate and my brain processed everything in this weird dream world.”
One described ‘ICU delirium’ where patients wrongly “feel things are being done to them like being buried alive or having legs and arms amputated.
“I was in one for like 2weeks I would not wish it on anyone,” another user wrote. “For me I was in a long dream. I did realise I was asleep for a long time. I was still able to feel and hear, which was interpreted into my dream. Example: My hands were restrained so I would not pull out any tubes and my dream was that I was being held in a prison.”
For Huntley however, there will be no awakening and discovering it was all just a nightmare. Like his blameless victims whose lives were so brutally cut short, his future has vanished.
But unlike Holly and Jessica, it’s a fate precious few will grieve.