Ian Huntley, the notorious Soham child killer, was given just a five per cent chance of survival after being savagely attacked with a metal pole inside HMP Frankland. The fiend was found battered senseless in a prison workshop on Thursday morning and rushed to the hospital in an induced coma.
Miraculous Survival Despite Brutal Assault
Sources reveal that prison staff initially believed Huntley was dead. One insider told The Sun: “It is miraculous he is still alive. Medics have worked miracles on him and he has clung on.”
“The prison nurses and staff who first saw him thought he was gone. There was only a five per cent chance of survival after an attack like that. It is still touch and go. When it first happened, he was totally unresponsive and could not breathe.”
Medical teams, including an air ambulance crew, raced to the County Durham prison after Huntley was left lying in a pool of blood. Although a helicopter attended, Huntley was taken to the hospital by road under armed guard.
Attack Carried Out by Triple Killer Anthony Russell
The attacker is believed to be Anthony Russell, 43, a triple killer and rapist who bludgeoned Huntley with a three-foot spiked metal pole at least six times. The brutal assault split open Huntley’s head, leaving him critically injured.
Huntley is serving a minimum of 40 years after the 2002 murders of Soham schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman. He lured the girls into his home with teaching assistant Maxine Carr after they left a family barbecue to buy sweets.
Huntley: A Prison Target for Years
Huntley has long been a marked man inside prison walls. In 2010, Damien Fowkes slashed his throat, leaving Huntley with a scar from jugular to windpipe. He survived a second attempt on his life in 2018, when a convict tried to slit his throat with a toothbrush razor.
The killer has also attempted suicide multiple times, including before his 2003 trial and while incarcerated at HMP Wakefield. He was moved to Frankland in 2008, where in 2010, he suffered non-life-threatening neck injuries after another attack.
Maxine Carr, now 49, served 21 months for perverting the course of justice after giving Huntley a false alibi. She lives under a new identity today.
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