Ian Huntley 'touch and go' after being seriously injured in prison attack

 Ian Huntley pictured in 2002. The prisoner has suffered serious injuries after being attacked in high-security Frankland prison. Picture: Toby Melville/PA

Soham killer Ian Huntley has suffered serious injuries after being attacked in prison.

Durham Constabulary said a prisoner, understood to be Huntley, was assaulted on Thursday morning at HMP Frankland before being rushed to hospital.

A spokesman for the force said: “Police were alerted to an assault which had taken place within HMP Frankland in Durham this morning.

“A male prisoner suffered serious injuries during the incident and was transported to hospital.

“A police investigation is now under way into the circumstances of the incident and detectives are liaising with staff at the prison.”

The Sun, which first reported the attack, said he was knocked unconscious with a metal pole and that a source said his condition was “touch and go”.

Former caretaker Huntley killed 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman after they left a family barbecue to buy sweets in Soham, Cambridgeshire, on August 4 2002, then dumped their bodies in a ditch.

He is serving a life sentence, with a recommendation that he must serve at least 40 years, for the murders.

A Prison Service spokesperson said: “A prisoner is receiving treatment after an incident at HMP Frankland on Thursday morning.

“It would be inappropriate to comment further while police investigate.” 

A North East Ambulance Service spokesperson said: “We dispatched two ambulance crews to the scene and requested support from the Great North Air Ambulance Service.

“One patient was transported to hospital by road.”

 It is not the first time Huntley, 52, has been attacked at Frankland prison.

Using a home-made weapon, robber Damien Fowkes slashed him in 2010, causing a “severe gaping cut to the left side of his neck”.

The wound was 7in (18cm) long and required 21 stitches.

Fowkes asked a prison officer: “Is he dead? I hope so.” He described Huntley as a “notorious child killer, both inside prison and in society in general”.

What is Huntley serving a life prison sentence for?

Huntley is serving a life prison sentence for the murder of 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2002.

He claimed during his trial at the Old Bailey in 2003 that the girls, wearing their Manchester United shirts, went inside his house, after they had left a family barbecue, because Holly had a nosebleed.

Ian Huntley sitting in his car outside his house near the college in Soham in 2002, during the period when police were looking for 10-year-old Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman. 

Huntley, now 52, said in his testimony that Holly drowned in the bath and that he killed Jessica as he tried to silence her screams, but jurors concluded he was lying.

The judge, Mr Justice Moses, told Huntley: “You are the only person who knows how you murdered them.” He said: “Ian Kevin Huntley on the 4th of August 2002 you enticed two 10-year-old girls, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, into your house.

“They were happy, intelligent and loyal.

“They were much loved by their families and all who knew them.

“You murdered them both. You are the one person who knows how you murdered them, you are the one person who knows why.

“You destroyed the evidence, which showed no mercy and no regret.

“Once you killed one of them, you had to kill the other in an attempt to avoid detection.

“On the 10th of August, six days later, you told the BBC that you were the last friendly face these two girls had to speak to.

“That was a lie which served to underline the persistent cruelty of your actions.” The girls’ bodies had been found in a ditch near an airbase at Mildenhall in Suffolk after a two-week search.

Huntley’s girlfriend, Maxine Carr, who was a teaching assistant at the girls’ school, served 21 months for perverting the course of justice for giving Huntley a false alibi.

She is now living under a new identity.

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.