Former school caretaker Ian Huntley killed 10-year-old schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman after they left a family barbecue to buy sweets in Soham, back in 2002
Soham murderer Ian Huntley strolled around HMP Frankland with the aura of someone famous, but also had an unwanted reputation among prisoners and guards, it’s been claimed.
Huntley, 52, had a “swagger” inside prison, a source told the Mirror, like he was “trying to be somebody”. But he was also regularly trying to get his name into the public sphere from inside jail, they said.
The double murderer is still fighting for his life after being attacked with a metal bar by a fellow inmate. He was battered around the head on Thursday morning, and was left in a pool blood during a workshop. The attacker was believed to be triple killer Anthony Russell, who bludgeoned Huntley with a spiked metal pole. Huntley was left in a coma after being hit six times with his head reportedly “split in two”.
READ MORE: Ian Huntley attack UPDATES: Killer’s mum allegedly ‘hopes he passes’READ MORE: Ian Huntley’s mum tells pals she ‘hopes he dies’ after visiting Soham killer in hospital
Ensure our latest headlines always appear at the top of your Google Search by making us a Preferred Source. Click here to activate or add us as your Preferred Source in your Google search settings.
Huntley generally kept quiet in HMP Frankland before the attack, a source revealed. He was relatively pleasant going about his duties, they said, but he was also incredibly paranoid.
The source, who didn’t want to be named, said: “He just kept his head down and did his time. He walked about with a kind of swagger like he thought he was somebody, and he had a reputation for trying to get his name into the press and having people sell stories about him. He was respectful, more or less.
“A-Wing is like a microcosm. It’s the society of the worst people you can possibly imagine. You’ve got 180 prisoners on A-Wing, and they’re all of a similar ilk.
“It’s not like, it’s not a novel experience, somebody being assaulted in prison. It’s just because it’s Huntley that anybody cares.”
Meanwhile, it’s believed life inside HMP Frankland would be back to business as usual, despite the horror attack on Thursday. Serious assaults inside prison aren’t a rare occurrence, but the suspect would likely be locked inside a segregation unit for the foreseeable future.
Former school 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 serves at least 40 years for the murders.
He claimed during his trial at the Old Bailey in 2003 that the girls, wearing their manchester-united-fc>Manchester United shirts, went inside his house because Holly had a nosebleed.
Huntley 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.
In 2010, robber Damien Fowkes slashed Huntley with a home-made weapon, causing a “severe, gaping cut to the left side of his neck” with a 7in (18cm) wound which 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”.
