Ian Huntley has been given just a five percent chance of survival after triple murderer Anthony Russell allegedly beat him around the head three times with a metal spike at HMP Frankland in County Durham, an insider has revealed.
The 52-year-old Soham killer remains in a medically induced coma in hospital following the Thursday morning attack. A Durham Constabulary spokesperson confirmed this morning: “There has been no change in the 52-year-old man’s condition overnight – he remains in hospital in a serious condition.”
An insider stated: “It is miraculous he is still alive. Medics have worked miracles on him and he has clung on. The prison nurses and staff who first saw him thought he was gone. And medics said there was only a five per cent chance of survival after an attack like that.”
Russell, 43, who is serving a whole life sentence, allegedly swung at Huntley with such force that part of the metal bar became lodged inside his head. Witnesses claim Russell was held by prison officers and shouted in celebration: “I’ve done it, I’ve done it. I’ve killed him, I’ve killed him.”
Despite officers fearing Huntley had died at the scene due to the extent of his injuries and concerns he was “not breathing,” paramedics managed to put him in a medically induced coma and transport him to hospital.
Huntley was found with head injuries in a pool of his own blood at approximately 9.30am Thursday in a workshop, with many inmates said to have cheered rather than rush to his aid. A prison source told the Daily Mail: “Huntley was working in waste management with other prisoners from Wing A, the segregated wing for prisoners who can’t be in the normal jail population for their own protection. The other prisoner got a metal bar from the waste metal crates and smashed Huntley three times in the head with it.”
Insiders claim there had been a “queue” of inmates wanting to kill Huntley, including Darren Osborne, the Finsbury Park Mosque attacker. They said Huntley “was trying to bully” Russell and “turn others against him” but Russell got to him first.
One woman who visited an inmate housed alongside Huntley told the Daily Mail it looked like he had been “ripped apart like a rat,” adding: “He’s in a bad, bad way. I shouldn’t say it, but it’s what he deserves.”
Russell was charged with the murder of Julie Williams and her son David Williams, as well as the rape and murder of pregnant Nicole McGregor near Leamington Spa in 2022. West Midlands Police believed Mr Williams was strangled with a lanyard due to Russell’s “mistaken belief that he was in a relationship with his girlfriend.”
This marks the third time Huntley has been attacked in jail. In 2010, his throat was slashed with a homemade weapon and in 2005, another inmate threw boiling water over him.
Huntley was convicted in 2003 of murdering 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Soham, Cambridgeshire in August 2002. He lured both schoolgirls into his home before dumping their bodies in a ditch some 12 miles away. He was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 40 years.
One former prison officer warned guards would now be on the lookout for copycats, stating: “Just like on the outside when something horrendous happens you get copycats looking for five minutes of fame.”
