Huntley , 52, was air-lifted to hospital after he was left lying in a pool of blood on his prison wing after he was targeted by another inmate at around 9am.
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Evil child killer Ian Huntley pictured in 2003Credit: Shutterstock
School pals Holly and Jessica vanished after leaving a family barbecue in Soham to go and buy some sweetsCredit: Rex
Sources said the double child killer’s condition was “touch and go” after the frenzied attack by a vengeful lag.
The beating at tough HMP Frankland, County Durham comes after paedo rocker Ian Watkins was killed in an attack at Wakefield Prison last October.
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A source said: “It was absolute chaos and Huntley was in a terrible state. I’m amazed someone was able to get anywhere near him because he is usually really closely protected.
“They must have timed it when he wasn’t with prison officers and must have used a weapon to injure him so severely.”
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The Soham killer is serving life in HMP Frankland for the murders of 10-year-old girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.
The 52-year-old carried out the double child killing in Soham, Cambridgeshire in 2002.
School pals Holly and Jessica vanished after leaving a family barbecue in Soham to go and buy some sweets.
But school caretaker Huntley lured the girls to his home and murdered them before disposing of their bodies in a ditch.
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Police and the local community rallied together in a huge search effort to find the children.
Their bodies were not found until more than a week later – near an airbase, 12 miles from Soham.
Suspicions were raised after the school caretaker gave detailed interviews to the press about the girls, and he appeared to take an unusual interest in the case.
He gave a detailed account when asked how the girls might react to a stranger in one interview.
Chillingly, he described how Holly would likely go quietly but Jessica would “put up a real fight and a real struggle”.
Journalists raised their concerns to the police after feeling something was off with his responses.
“He knew how they’d react because that’s how they reacted when he killed them,” one reporter said later.
His then fiancée Maxine Carr, a teaching assistant at Holly and Jessica’s school in the Cambridgeshire town, had given him a false alibiCredit: Reuters
The killer was convicted in 2003, after pleading not guiltyCredit: PA:Press Association
Locals also came forward with information about the caretaker after seeing him on the news.
Huntley, one of Britain’s most infamous killers, was convicted in 2003 after pleading not guilty.
His then fiancée Maxine Carr , a teaching assistant at Holly and Jessica’s school in the Cambridgeshire town, had given him a false alibi.
She was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in jail for perverting the course of justice and issued with a new identity on release.
Carr infamously turned on Huntley as he sat in the dock during his murder trial, describing him as “that thing in the box”.
She was granted a lifelong anonymity order in 2005, which protects her new identity indefinitely.
School caretaker Huntley has continually failed to give the grieving families the closure they need.
In court , he claimed both 10-year-olds died accidentally, lying that Holly drowned in his bath and that he inadvertently suffocated Jessica while trying to stifle her screams.
Yet in tapes recorded behind bars in 2018, the beast confessed to deliberately killing Jessica to stop her raising the alarm.
He still insisted Holly’s death was an accident.
The beast’s vile crimes have led to fellow inmates attacking him behind bars.
In 2010 armed robber Damien Fowkes slashed Huntley’s throat in Frankland , putting him in hospital.
Murderer Mark Hobson threw boiling water over him in Wakefield Prison in 2005.
It comes after we reported how Huntley had his red Manchester United-style shirt seized by jail bosses — after The Sun revealed he was strutting around in it.
Officers stormed into his cell and confiscated the top, which has a white No 10 on the back in an apparent sick reference to his schoolgirl victims .
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Lags had complained about the top — similar to ones worn by ten-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman on the day he murdered them in 2002.
Guards also seized framed pictures of Huntley with ex Maxine Carr plus other items including DVDs.
The Soham killer is serving life in HMP Frankland for the murders of 10-year-old girls Holly Wells and Jessica ChapmanCredit: PA
School caretaker Huntley has continually failed to give the grieving families the closure they need after killing the girls at his houseCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
Lured into house by monster
THE DISAPPEARANCE and murders of ten-year-old schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were crimes that shocked the nation.
The two best friends went missing in Soham, Cambs, on August 4, 2002, after they went off to buy sweets during a family barbecue.
The pair were lured into school caretaker Huntley’s home after he claimed his partner Maxine Carr, who worked at the girls’ school, was in the property.
He then murdered them in cold blood.
Images of the missing girls’ faces were soon plastered over every national and local newspaper, and during a desperate nationwide appeal to find them, Huntley gave TV interviews and took part in search parties.
Former classroom assistant Carr gave Huntley a false alibi which she stuck to for two weeks – until it emerged she had been at a nightclub with another man at the time.
Holly and Jessica’s remains were discovered in a ditch at an air base 14 miles away at Mildenhall, Suffolk, on August 17, 2002.
Huntley was convicted in 2003 of the girls’ murders and is serving two life terms at high security HMP Frankland in Durham.
He will not be considered for release until 2042.
Carr was jailed for perverting the course of justice and released in 2004 with a new identity.
In March 2020 it was reported that she had gone into hiding after her new identity was exposed.
