Ian Huntley, notorious child killer, dies after prison attack
Ian Huntley (Photo by PA Images via Getty Images)
Ian Huntley, a 52-year-old former school caretaker and one of Britain’s most notorious child killers, has died days after a fellow inmate attacked him in prison.
Here’s what we know:
Ian Huntley dead
What we know:
Huntley, who was serving his sentence at Frankland prison in northeast England, was hit on the head repeatedly with a metal bar in a workshop of the maximum-security prison.
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He was on life support for days before he died at 52 years old. According to British media, murderer and rapist Anthony Russell, 43, is the inmate who attacked Huntley.
What we don't know:
It’s unclear what provoked the attack on Huntley, though he had survived repeated previous attempts on his life and was kept under close protection along with other killers. Huntley’s throat was slashed by another inmate in 2010.
Notorious child killer
The backstory:
Huntley was convicted of murdering Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, both 10 years old. Their case had transfixed Britain for two weeks after the best friends vanished from the village of Soham in eastern England on Aug. 4, 2002 after leaving a barbecue to buy candy.
Police searched for the girls for 13 days. A photo of the girls wearing matching red Manchester United soccer shirts, taken just before they disappeared, became a fixture of front pages and news broadcasts as detectives mounted a huge hunt.
A group of hikers eventually discovered the girls’ remains beside a dirt path in a wooded area a few miles from the village.
What they're saying:
"The murders of remains one of the most shocking and devastating cases in our nation’s history, and our thoughts are with their families," the U.K. Ministry of Justice said in a statement.
Huntley denied murdering the children, but was convicted after a trial in 2003. His life sentence recommended he serve at least 40 years.
At the time of the murders, Huntley lived with Maxine Carr, a teaching assistant at Holly and Jessica’s grade school. Carr gave Huntley a false alibi and was subsequently jailed for 21 months for perverting the course of justice. She is now living under a new identity.
Huntley and Carr often spoke to reporters during the search for the girls. Huntley had told them he thought he was one of the last people to see them alive, while Carr said she would always keep a card Holly had drawn for her.
The Source: This report includes information from The Associated Press.