Ian Huntley, convicted of one of the most notorious child murders in British criminal history, has died at the age of 52 after succumbing to injuries sustained during an assault by a fellow prisoner at HMP Frankland in County Durham on 26 February.
Huntley had been on life support in hospital following the attack, in which he suffered severe head trauma after being struck with a makeshift weapon by another inmate in a prison workshop. He had never regained consciousness after the assault. Triple killer Anthony Russell, 43, is understood to be suspected of carrying out the attack.
Huntley had been serving a life sentence with a minimum term of 40 years for the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, both aged ten, in the summer of 2002 — crimes that shocked the nation and remain among the most deeply remembered in recent British history.
The two girls, best friends from Soham in Cambridgeshire, vanished in August 2002 after leaving a family barbecue. It is believed they were on their way to buy sweets when Huntley, then 28 and working as a school caretaker, lured them to his home and killed them. The image of Holly and Jessica in their matching red Manchester United football kits became one of the defining photographs of the case, fixed in the memories of millions who followed the story.
Their disappearance prompted a major police investigation, extensive public appeals and searches across the flat Fenland landscape surrounding Soham. A fortnight after they were reported missing, their bodies were discovered in a ditch approximately ten miles away, near RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk. Huntley was arrested the same day.
He was subsequently convicted of both murders and sentenced to a minimum of 40 years. His then-girlfriend Maxine Carr was separately convicted in 2003 of conspiring to pervert the course of justice for providing him with a false alibi. She has since been released.
The brutality of his crimes made Huntley a persistent target throughout his time in custody. He had been attacked on multiple previous occasions, including an incident in 2010 in which his throat was slashed by another inmate, requiring 21 stitches.
A Prison Service investigation and police inquiry into the circumstances of the fatal assault are expected to continue in the coming weeks.
