An inquest into the death of the Soham murderer, Ian Huntley, has heard he was struck over the head multiple times with a metal bar in prison. Huntley, 52, was an inmate at the maximum-security HMP Frankland in Durham, where he was allegedly attacked in a workshop on 26 February. The double child killer was put on life support in hospital and died on 7 March.
Jeremy Chipperfield, a senior coroner sitting in Crook, County Durham, on Tuesday formally opened and adjourned the inquest into Huntley's death. The coroner's officer, Bradley King, said that after a postmortem conducted by Dr Jennifer Bolton, the provisional cause of death was '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. The assault left Mr Huntley with significant head injuries. He would later pass away at the Royal Victoria Infirmary hospital in Newcastle on 7 March.'
Huntley abducted and murdered two 10-year-old best friends, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, in August 2002 after they left a family barbecue in Soham, Cambridgeshire. The resulting search dominated headlines, with about 400 police officers assigned full-time to the case. Their bodies were found a fortnight later, hidden in a ditch near RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk. Huntley, a school caretaker, was arrested the same day. At his trial, he tried to argue the girls died accidentally but was found guilty of murder and jailed for life with a minimum term of 40 years.
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'. The prison where Huntley died, HMP Frankland, is a category A prison holding over 800 male prisoners, including high-risk inmates serving life sentences and whole-life tariffs. Anthony Russell, 43, has been charged with murdering Huntley and is due to appear at Newcastle crown court on 24 April for a pre-trial preparation hearing.
