A prisoner accused of murdering Soham killer Ian Huntley behind bars may not be fit to stand trial, an inquest has heard. Huntley, 52, died at the Royal Victoria Infirmary hospital in Newcastle nine days after being attacked at HMP Frankland, County Durham, in February.
Details of the attack
A previous inquest hearing was told that former school caretaker Huntley, who was serving a life sentence for the 2002 murders of 10-year-old girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, had been struck over the head multiple times with a metal bar. His cause of death was given as ‘blunt head injury.’
Fellow prison inmate Anthony Russell, 43, was charged with his murder and he is next due to appear at court for a pre-trial preparation hearing on June 3. But whether he will be deemed fit to stand trial has not yet been decided. The inquest will take place after criminal proceedings have concluded.
Court proceedings
Coroners' officer Bradley King told a short mention at Crook Coroners’ Court on Wednesday that ‘a decision will need to be made whether the defendant is fit to stand trial.’ Senior Coroner Jeremy Chipperfield adjourned the hearing until September 15 due to the ongoing criminal case against Russell.
He said the law required him to suspend his investigation once a coroner became aware that someone has been charged with murder.
Background of Huntley's crimes
Huntley killed best friends Holly and Jessica in Soham, Cambs, after luring them into his home when they left a family barbecue to buy sweets on August 4, 2002. He dumped their bodies in a ditch 10 miles away. They were not found for 13 days, despite a search involving hundreds of police officers.
He denied murdering the girls and claimed in his 2003 Old Bailey trial that Holly had drowned in the bath when he was assisting her with a nosebleed and he had accidentally smothered Jessica to stop her screaming. But the jury rejected his account and he was convicted and jailed for life with a recommended minimum term of 40 years.
His girlfriend, Maxine Carr, a teaching assistant at the girls' school, gave Huntley a false alibi. She was jailed for 21 months for perverting the course of justice and is now living under a new identity.
Previous attacks in prison
The fatal attack was at least the third time Huntley had been targeted in jail. In 2010, his throat was slashed with a makeshift weapon and, in 2005 another inmate threw boiling water over him.
