Everything we know after the death of Soham murderer Ian Huntley

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Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells had just been walking to get some sweets from a nearby sports centre before their murder.

The Soham killer, Ian Huntley, died on Saturday, March 7, after being attacked in prison on Thursday, February 26. Huntley had been serving a life sentence for the murder of two 10-year-old girls in Soham on August 4 2002.

Jessica Chapman had left her home in the morning of the girls’ death to go to a barbecue at her friend Holly Wells’ house. The two girls spent the day together and left the house at around 6.05pm to get sweets from a vending machine at the Ross Peers Sports Centre.

After they didn’t return home, both girls’ parents reported them to Cambridgeshire Police, who began a search for the pair. The bodies of the two girls were found on August 17 in a ditch close to RAF Lakenheath.

Following an extensive investigation, police were able to collect enough physical evidence from Huntley’s home, car, and Soham Village College, where he had worked, to charge him with two counts of murder. It is believed that Huntley lured the girls into his house as they walked past.

An inquest into the girls’ deaths determined they had most likely died from asphyxiation. After his trial, the jury deliberated for four days and returned a guilty verdict.

Huntley was sentenced to life in prison with a recommendation that he serve at least 40 years. Throughout his time in prison, Huntley had been attacked multiple times by other inmates.

In 2005 at HMP Wakefield, Huntley was scalded by boiling water after he was attacked by spree killer Mark Hobson. Huntley was transferred to HMP Frankland in 2008.

Two years later, he was attacked by convicted armed robber Damien Fowkes, who had slashed his throat with a homemade weapon that left Huntley requiring 21 stitches. After the attack, Fowkes said to a prison officer: “Is he dead? I hope so.”

The latest attack happened in February when an inmate hit Huntley with a metal bar in the workshop at HMP Frankland. Reportedly, murderer and rapist Anthony Russell, 43, had shouted “I’ve done it, I’ve done it” after he was attacked.

Russell is currently serving life in prison after being sentenced in 2021 for the murders of Julie Williams, 58, and her son David Williams, 32, at separate flats in Coventry. He also raped and murdered a pregnant 31-year-old woman, McGregor, who was found in the woods near Leamington Spa three days later.

Durham Constabulary has not officially identified the suspect but has confirmed a man in his mid-40s had been detained. Huntley was transferred to the hospital to be put on a life-support machine and remained in a serious condition for the following week.

On Friday, March 6, it was reported that Huntley had been blinded and was not expected to regain consciousness after suffering a severe brain trauma. The Sun reported that his life-support machine had been switched off at midday on Friday following tests that revealed he was in a vegetative state.

It was confirmed on Saturday, March 7, that Huntley had died in hospital.