Inside 'Monster Mansion': Soham Killer Huntley Attacked at Notorious HMP Frankland
The prison infamously dubbed 'Monster Mansion', where Soham killer Ian Huntley was brutally assaulted today, serves as home to Britain's most dangerous criminals, notorious for turning violently on each other. Huntley sustained serious injuries after being attacked this morning at HMP Frankland in County Durham, a high-security Category A facility housing hundreds of murderers, rapists, and terrorists.
Huntley's Life Sentence and the Frankland Attack
The former school caretaker is currently serving a life sentence for the murders of ten-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2002, after the girls left a family barbecue in Cambridgeshire. However, the assault on Huntley—who was struck with an iron bar in a prison workshop and is now fighting for his life—represents just one incident in a long history of violence at this maximum security jail.
Recent Violent Incidents at the Prison
Manchester Arena bomb plotter Hashem Abedi allegedly attacked several Frankland prison officers with hot cooking oil and makeshift weapons on April 12 last year. Abedi pleaded not guilty at the Old Bailey in October to the attempted murders of three prison officers and assaulting a fourth, causing actual bodily harm. His trial is scheduled for next January. Abedi was previously jailed for a record-breaking 55 years in 2020 after being convicted of assisting with the Manchester terror plot in 2017, which saw his brother, suicide bomber Salman Abedi, kill 22 people by detonating a homemade rucksack bomb at an Ariana Grande concert.
This week, former cage fighter Damien Bendall, 36, who is serving a whole-life tariff for murdering his pregnant partner and three children, received a further life sentence for a hammer attack on a fellow inmate at Frankland. Bendall was sentenced on Monday for the attempted murder of Michael Mullaney after smashing him four times in the head with a claw hammer in May 2024. The first blow struck the back of Mullaney's head, causing him to fall to the floor before three additional hits, as detailed at Teesside Crown Court. The assault in a workshop was so severe that a prison officer initially believed the victim might be dead.
In May 2023, sexual predator Koci Selamaj, 37, who was jailed for at least 36 years for the murder of primary school teacher Sabina Nessa, smashed the toilet bowl in his cell at Frankland and stabbed a guard with a porcelain shard. Selamaj admitted wounding one guard with intent to cause really serious harm and assaulting another, occasioning actual bodily harm. A court heard that Selamaj screamed and destroyed his toilet before arming himself with the shard to attack the guard, who was stabbed in the knee and forearm and assisted by colleagues.
Historical Disturbing Cases and Prison Conditions
One of the most disturbing cases in the prison's history occurred in 2011, when two prisoners, Michael Parr and Nathan Mann, disembowelled an inmate with the intent to eat his liver. They were jailed for life in 2012 over the death of Mitchell Harrison, 23, who was serving an indefinite sentence for raping a 13-year-old girl. Parr and Mann lured Harrison into Mann's cell, where Mann attempted to strangle him, stabbed him in the eye with a pen, and slashed his neck with a weapon made from plastic cutlery and razor blades, while Parr held the victim down.
HMP Frankland, built in 1983 just outside Durham city, houses approximately 850 prisoners across eight wings, with single cells featuring private toilets and sinks. Educational courses up to degree level are provided by Milton Keynes College, and inmates can work in areas such as furniture production, cutting and sewing, and recycling. However, the prison has reportedly become so overrun by Islamist gangs that inmates refusing to join them are housed in the separation centre for their own safety.
Impact on Prison Staff and Safety Concerns
Last May, former prison officer Claire Lewis, 50, from Washington in Sunderland, launched a campaign for mandatory protective gear for all UK prison staff after she was left with life-threatening injuries from an attack at Frankland in 2010 and has been unable to work since. Criminal defence barrister Tony Wyatt, who regularly visits the jail, stated last year that some prisoners are forced to serve their sentences in 'total lockdown' due to safety issues.
The attack on Ian Huntley underscores the ongoing dangers within HMP Frankland, a facility designed to contain Britain's worst offenders but plagued by internal violence and security challenges.
