Notorious Child Killer Ian Huntley Clings to Life After Brutal Prison Attack
Britain's most reviled child murderer, Ian Huntley, is fighting for his life after being brutally assaulted by another inmate at HMP Frankland prison in County Durham. The 52-year-old killer was battered unconscious with a metal pole during the violent confrontation that occurred on Thursday, leaving him lying in a pool of blood according to reports from The UK Sun.
Violent History Behind Bars
This marks the third serious attack on Huntley since he began serving his life sentence for the 2002 murders of 10-year-old best friends Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman. Prison sources described the scene as "absolute chaos" with Huntley in a "terrible state" following the assault. The attacker reportedly timed the assault for a moment when Huntley was not under close protection from prison officers.
"They must have timed it when he wasn't with prison officers and must have used a weapon to injure him so severely," a source told The Sun newspaper.
The Soham Murders That Shocked a Nation
Huntley earned the nickname "The Soham Killer" for his horrific crimes in the town north of Cambridge where he worked as a school janitor. In August 2002, he lured Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman to his home after they left a family barbecue to buy candy, then murdered them and disposed of their bodies in a ditch. The girls' bodies were not discovered until more than a week later, approximately 20 kilometers from Soham near an airbase.
During the investigation, Huntley gave detailed interviews to the press about the missing girls, displaying what authorities later recognized as an unusual interest in the case. Reporters eventually tipped off police about the "creepy janitor" whose knowledge of how the girls would react to a stranger proved disturbingly accurate.
Previous Attacks and Survival
This is not the first time Huntley has faced violence while incarcerated. In 2010, his throat was slit in a previous attack, and in 2018, another inmate named Simon Maskrey attempted to kill him in his cell armed with a weapon. Huntley managed to fight off that attacker with help from another prisoner.
"There was an attempt on my life last year," Huntley stated in a police interview about the 2018 incident. "I have no problems telling you his name, it was a prisoner who tried to kill me."
Beyond these documented attacks, Huntley has reportedly been stabbed multiple times, beaten on other occasions, and even doused with boiling water during his years in the prison system.
Complicit Partner and Ongoing Notoriety
Huntley's then-fiancée, teaching assistant Maxine Carr, provided him with a false alibi during the murder investigation and was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in jail for perverting the course of justice. Upon her release, she was provided with a new identity but reportedly went into hiding in March 2020 after that identity was exposed.
The attack on Huntley comes just months after another notorious prisoner, pedophile rock star Ian Watkins, was murdered at Wakefield Prison in October. The frequency of such attacks against high-profile inmates raises questions about security measures within Britain's maximum security prison system.
As Huntley remains in critical condition described by media as "touch and go," the case continues to draw attention to one of Britain's most infamous criminals and the violent environment that surrounds such notorious figures within the prison system.
