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 attacked in a workshop at HMP Frankland in Durham on 26 February and died in hospital on 7 March.
Senior coroner Jeremy Chipperfield formally opened and adjourned the inquest in Crook, County Durham on Tuesday. Coroner's officer Bradley King said a postmortem by Dr Jennifer Bolton gave the provisional cause of death as 'blunt head injury'.
Huntley abducted and murdered 10-year-old Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Soham, Cambridgeshire in August 2002. He was jailed for life with a minimum term of 40 years in 2003. The Ministry of Justice said his crime 'remains one of the most shocking and devastating cases in our nation's history'.
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 hearing.
