An inquest into the death of Soham murderer Ian Huntley has heard that he died from a blunt head injury after being attacked in prison. The 52-year-old was struck multiple times with a metal bar at HMP Frankland in Durham on 26 February, the hearing was told.
Huntley, who was serving life for the murders of 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2002, was taken to hospital and placed on life support. He died on 7 March. Senior coroner Jeremy Chipperfield formally opened and adjourned the inquest in Crook, County Durham, in a brief hearing lasting less than five minutes.
Coroner's officer Bradley King stated that a postmortem by Dr Jennifer Bolton gave the provisional cause of death as 'blunt head injury'. He said Huntley was assaulted by another prisoner with an object described as a metal bar, leaving him with significant head injuries. He later died at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle.
After Huntley's 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'. Huntley abducted and murdered Holly and Jessica in August 2002 after they left a family barbecue in Soham, Cambridgeshire. Their bodies were found two weeks later in a ditch near RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk.
Anthony Russell, 43, has been charged with Huntley's murder and is due to appear at Newcastle Crown Court on 24 April for a pre-trial preparation hearing.
