Soham accused in coma after suicide bid
He was found having a fit in his cell in the early hours of yesterday morning after taking an overdose of anti-depressants at one of Britain's top security prisons, sources said.
An investigation was launched immediately, focusing on the suspicion that Huntley, 29, had stored up his prescribed medication for the overdose.
He became one of Britain's most infamous inmates when he was charged with the double murder of schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman last August.
The former school caretaker had been on suicide watch since his last court appearance, when he denied the killings, and was understood to have been receiving medication for depression for some time.
He was discovered having a seizure in his cell by officers at Woodhill prison dubbed the "British Alcatraz" who had orders to check him every 15 minutes over fears he could try to kill himself.
Harry Fletcher, of the National Association of Probation Officers, said he had learned from sources that Huntley had overdosed on the anti-depressants, which he had accumulated and hidden in tea bags inside his cell.
He was rushed from the prison near Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, to hospital by ambulance but was in a coma by the time he arrived, at about 4am.
Prison Service officials asked that the hospital not be identified amid security fears.
Mark Leech, editor of the Prisons Handbook, said: "Even in a coma I wouldn't be surprised to find three officers around his bed and even him handcuffed.
"It's not only preventing him from escaping but it's also because of the uproar this case has caused."
An early report on the investigation is expected by Friday.
Mark Freeman, deputy general secretary of the Prison Officers Association (POA), said a recent change in prison procedures could have given Huntley his chance.
"This will no doubt be an embarrassment for the Prison Service and the Government," he said.
"They will be looking for someone to blame and the chances are that it will be some poor wing officers who unfortunately have been dispensing medication that, in our opinion, they are not medically trained to do."
Officers must hand out drugs after medical officers leave prisons at night, he said, adding that the changes had come into force in recent months.
Conservative home affairs spokesman James Paice, whose South East Cambridgeshire constituency covers Soham, has written to British Home Secretary David Blunkett to demand an inquiry into the apparent suicide bid.
Mr Paice said: "My heartfelt sympathies go out to the families of the two girls. The trial planned for this autumn might at least have helped them draw a line under the tragedy. Now that trial may well be delayed."
The measures designed to stop prisoners committing suicide came under scrutiny after serial killer Fred West was found hanged in his cell in Birmingham on New Year's Day 1995, before he could be tried on murder charges.
His wife Rose later received 10 life sentences for her part in the killings.
The number of suicides in prisons leapt last year, with campaign groups blaming the increase in the number of inmates.
Woodhill prison includes a "jail within a jail" for some of the country's most dangerous criminals, which has housed inmates including Charles Bronson, Michael Sams, Anthony McCullagh and Fred Low.
Huntley was charged with double murder following the disappearance of schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in August last year.
Former classroom assistant Maxine Carr who was Huntley's live-in partner at the time of the killings denies charges of assisting an offender and of conspiring to pervert the course of justice.
The pair appeared at the Old Bailey together in April in connection with the Soham case and their trial is scheduled to begin on October 6.
Holly and Jessica vanished on August 4 last year after being seen walking near their family homes in Soham. Their bodies were found on August 17 in a ditch near Lakenheath, Suffolk.
