LONDON – Ian Huntley, the former school caretaker who murdered two 10-year-old schoolgirls in Soham, died on Saturday following an attack in prison. The 52-year-old suffered significant head trauma after being attacked with a makeshift weapon by another inmate at HMP Frankland on 26 February and had been on life support in hospital.
He had been serving a life sentence with a minimum term of 40 years for murdering best friends Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2002. The Ministry of Justice said Huntley’s crime “remains one of the most shocking and devastating cases in our nation’s history, and our thoughts are with their families”. As first reported by The Sun newspaper, Huntley’s life support was switched off on Friday.
The brutality of his crimes made him a target in prison, and he had been attacked several times previously. The BBC understands that triple killer Anthony Russell, 43, is suspected of attacking Huntley.
Sources previously told the BBC that Huntley was found lying in a pool of blood after being bludgeoned with a makeshift weapon in a workshop at the high-security prison in County Durham. This was not the first time Huntley had been attacked at the prison — he was slashed across the throat and needed 21 stitches in 2010.
HMP Frankland houses some of the most dangerous criminals, including murderers and rapists. In 2005, he was also attacked by a convicted murderer who threw boiling water over him at HMP Wakefield.
Durham Constabulary said it is preparing a file for the Crown Prosecution Service for consideration of charges. A spokesperson for the force said: “A police investigation into the circumstances of the incident is ongoing.”
Holly and Jessica vanished after leaving a family barbecue in their small town near Cambridge in August 2002. It is believed they were on their way to buy sweets when Huntley, then aged 28, lured them back to his home and killed them.
A photograph of the girls — wearing their red Manchester United football kits — is etched in the minds of many who vividly remember their disappearance and murder. Their disappearance made national headlines and led to police appeals and extensive searches of the town and the flat countryside of The Fens.
A fortnight after the searches began, the girls’ bodies were found in a ditch about 10 miles away, near RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk. Huntley, who was originally from Grimsby, was arrested on the same day. He was subsequently convicted and sentenced to a minimum of 40 years for the double murders.
His girlfriend, Maxine Carr, was also jailed in 2003 after being found guilty of conspiring to pervert the course of justice by giving him a false alibi. She was given a new identity after being released from prison in May 2004. (BBC)
