A trial date has been set for an inmate charged with the murder of Soham killer Ian Huntley in prison. Anthony Russell, 44, appeared at Newcastle Crown Court via videolink from HMP Frankland on Wednesday for a brief hearing, during which he did not enter a plea.
Russell is charged with a single count of murdering the 52-year-old, who was allegedly attacked with a metal bar in a workshop at the maximum security jail on February 26. Huntley was taken to the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle, where he died on March 7.
Huntley was serving a life sentence for the 2002 murders of 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman. The ex-school caretaker killed the two best friends after they left a family barbecue to buy sweets in Soham, Cambridgeshire, on August 4, 2002. He dumped their bodies in a ditch 10 miles away.
It took 13 days for the girls' bodies to be found, despite an extensive search involving hundreds of police officers. Huntley denied murder but was convicted after a trial at the Old Bailey in 2003 and jailed for life with a minimum term of 40 years.
