Soham murderer Ian Huntley remains in a serious condition following a prison assault, police have said.He was taken to hospital after being found in a pool of blood following an alleged attack by an unknown inmate on Thursday.
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Soham killer Ian Huntley seriously injured in prison
A Durham Constabulary spokesperson said there had been no change in the 52-year-old’s condition overnight.”He remains in hospital in a serious condition,” they added.Police earlier said that a man in his mid-40s was being investigated over the incident.”He has not been arrested at this stage but remains in detention within the prison,” the force added.Huntley killed 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Soham, Cambridgeshire, in August 2002.
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Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman. Pic: Reuters
The latest incident is not the first time Huntley has been attacked at HMP Frankland.In 2011, an inmate who slashed Huntley’s throat with a makeshift knife was jailed for life.Damien Fowkes was sentenced to a minimum of 20 years for the attempted murder of Huntley in March 2010 and the manslaughter of child killer Colin Hatch.Fowkes inflicted a wound seven inches long on Huntley’s neck and the court was told it was only “good fortune” that the weapon missed anything vital.
Child killer Ian Huntley will be vulnerable to another attack if he survives
Any prisoner convicted of a child sex crime is a target for other inmates.
The court may have delivered justice in a case such as Ian Huntley’s, but for some fellow criminals, what’s really needed is revenge – to make you suffer like you made your victims suffer.
From his first day inside, there was a price on Huntley’s head – not a monetary one, but the promise of “respect” for anyone who attacked him.
In the violent world of a top security jail, respect from your fellow cons is everything and there’s nothing quite like hurting a prisoner considered “the lowest of the low”.
An infamous villain once described to me over lunch how he witnessed a planned prison knife attack on a child sex offender, a story he told years later with relish, laughter and no grim detail spared.
Huntley would have been on Rule 43, held in the prison’s unit for vulnerable inmates, mostly sex offenders, but police informants too.
But it’s impossible to fully protect everyone, especially in today’s chaotic jail system with overcrowding and increased violence, alongside the regular departure of disillusioned older warders who are replaced with more inexperienced officers.
Mark Leech, editor of the Prisons Handbook, said: “The upcoming young thugs in prison see people like Huntley as a way of gaining kudos, especially if they are already serving lengthy sentences.”
If Huntley recovers, he will always be vulnerable to another attack.
Some prisoners have long memories and plenty of time to think.
The disappearance and murders of schoolgirls Holly and Jessica captured the attention of the nation in 2002.Huntley killed them after they left a family barbecue to buy sweets, and then dumped their bodies in a ditch.He was their school caretaker and put himself forward as a volunteer to help search for them after they went missing – and was interviewed by reporters on camera.The efforts to locate the girls in the 13 days after they disappeared have been described as one of the most intense and extensive in British criminal history.Huntley was convicted of murdering both girls in December 2003 and sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment.Read more from Jattvibe:Man arrested after Churchill statue vandalisedGregg Wallace drops legal claim against BBC
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Huntley’s girlfriend Maxine Carr was given a three-and-a-half year jail term for her role in the deaths. Pic: Cambridgeshire Police/Reuters
His girlfriend, Maxine Carr – the girls’ teaching assistant – had knowingly provided Huntley with a false alibi.She was jailed for three-and-a-half years for conspiring with Huntley to pervert the course of justice.
