Ian Huntley was booked into hospital under the patient name “anonymous” as three prison officers guarded his bedside around the clock. The evil child-killer, reportedly left blinded and brain damaged after being bludgeoned by a fellow inmate at HMP Frankland, finally died eight days after the savage attack.
Huntley had been treated at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary in County Durham. Three officers in civilian clothes guarded his bed for his own protection.
He is understood to have had only one visitor, his mother, Lynda, who is believed to have given permission for life support to be withdrawn on March 6. Huntley was half way through a 40-year sentence for murdering 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman who went to buy sweets but never came home in 2002.
Sources said that should Huntley have survived his injuries, he never would have returned to the Catagory A prison nicknamed Monster Mansion for housing the country’s worst offenders. Instead, he would’ve been heading to a secure hospital costing the tax-payer a staggering £300,000 a year.
But even keeping watch over him in Newcastle’s RV was reportedly costing £2,300 a day. A high profile category A inmate such as Huntley requires three prison officers and a prison manager at his bedside at all times – paid £24 an hour.
“Normally a hospital bed watch is the best possible overtime – you can just chat, watch Netflix and eat pizza so everyone wants to do it,” a prison source told the Mail.
“On one hand this will be even easier as Huntley is in a coma – but then who really wants to spend their days and nights beside one of the most despicable men in the country?”
It was on February 26 that Huntley was ambushed during a prison workshop, reportedly by triple murderer and rapist, Anthony Russell.
Russell is believed to have struck Huntley at least 15 times and screamed out: “I’ve done it! I’ve done it! I’ve killed him! I’ve killed him!” as officials closed in around him
Huntley was stabilised at the scene by a paramedic and doctor and was so close to death, he couldn’t be transported to hospital by air ambulance.
Instead, an ambulance with an armed police escort took him, along with two prison guards and an armed officer to the RVI.
Upon arrival, he was taken to the burns unit – understood to be the only place quiet enough to keep him away from other patients, according to a hospital source.
He was later moved to the critical care ward. He was put into an induced coma and is understood to never have regained consciousness.
Prison officers who guarded him wore civilian clothes “so not to cause a scene,” the hospital source said.
Former prison governor and senior Home Office official Ian Acheson questioned whether prison bosses could have applied basic common sense to have avoided the attack.
“It is not Huntley’s squalid life we should be reflecting on, rather the state of a high security prison where such extreme violence is becoming worryingly frequent,” he said.
“There was clearly a hazard that Huntley, who had been attacked multiple times in the past, would be a target in a workshop.
“Should he have been there at all? Should his alleged assailant? Was there any history between the two?
“In prisons like Frankland, even petty personality clashes can explode without warning into murderous violence.”
Senior managers often override warnings about allowing unsuitable prisoners to mix because resources are so stretched, Mr Acheson added.
“This claim needs to be investigated at Frankland,” he said.
“Security must take priority,” he added, noting how difficult it is to manage prisoners with “little to lose,” such as Russell, who is serving a whole-life term, meaning he will never be released.