An inquest into the death of Soham murderer Ian Huntley has heard he was struck over the head multiple times with a metal bar in prison. The 52-year-old was an inmate at HMP Frankland in Durham when he was allegedly attacked in a workshop on 26 February. He was placed on life support and died on 7 March.
Jeremy Chipperfield, senior coroner for County Durham, formally opened and adjourned the inquest in Crook on Tuesday. The coroner's officer, Bradley King, said a postmortem by Dr Jennifer Bolton gave the provisional cause of death as 'blunt head injury'. He stated: 'I understand the circumstances to be that Mr Huntley was struck over the head multiple times by another prisoner with an object described as a metal bar.'
Huntley abducted and murdered 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Soham, Cambridgeshire, in August 2002. The girls disappeared after leaving a family barbecue and were found a fortnight later in a ditch near RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk. Huntley, a school caretaker, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 40 years after being found guilty of murder at the Old Bailey.
After his death, the Ministry of Justice said his crime 'remains one of the most shocking and devastating cases in our nation's history, and our thoughts are with their families'. Anthony Russell, 43, has been charged with murdering Huntley and is due to appear at Newcastle Crown Court on 24 April.
