The fatal attack on Ian Huntley may have emboldened other prisoners to launch their own attacks on inmates.
After Soham killer Ian Huntley was brutally beaten to death in a prison attack, other inmates – including infamous and notorious murderers – fear “they could be next”.
A source has warned that the fatal attack on child killer Huntley, 52, may have emboldened other inmates who have seen that staff cannot protect high-profile prisoners. Huntley spent several days in hospital after the attack before his life support was turned off last week.
Dubbed “Monster Mansion”, the notorious prison’s other infamous inmates include former Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens – a man who could be the prime target.
He and the likes of Levi Bellfield, will be “looking over their shoulders” according to the source, reports the Mirror.
Bellfield, who raped and murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, is reported to have converted to Islam in the hope Muslim gangs will protect him. Couzens, who abducted, raped and killed Sarah Everard in 2021, has been told it’s “only a matter of time” before he is seriously hurt.
Both have been warned that they could be slashed, beaten or ‘kettled’ – where someone has boiling water mixed with sugar thrown in their face.
The prison source said: “Couzens is already getting abuse and threats every day. You look at someone like him, murderer, rapist, and worst of all a copper, and you know it’s only a matter of time.”
HMP Frankland, in County Durham, has experienced a series of violent incidents recently.
Hashem Abedi, jailed for life for helping his brother carry out the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing, allegedly attacked three prison officers with boiling liquid and an improvised weapon in April last year. He has been charged in connection with the incident and pleaded not guilty to attempted murder.
Former school caretaker Huntley was jailed for life after he murdered 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in August 2002.
Anthony Russell, 43, has been charged with Huntley’s murder and, earlier this week, appeared via video link from the prison at Teesside Crown Court this week
According to the prison source, some inmates regard themselves as “above Huntley both morally and in the prison food chain” which could encourage attacks on other notorious prisoners.
“Others will be thinking ‘how can I put myself on the map too?’ That’s why in the days and weeks after an attack like this, things get extra dangerous,” the source said. “High-profile inmates will want to stay in the cells or be looking over their shoulders thinking they could be next.”
Urfan Sharif, 43, who beat his 10-year-old daughter Sara to death, and David Fuller, 71, who was jailed for life in 2021 after sexually assaulting more than 100 female corpses in NHS hospital morgues, are other inmates said to be at risk.
The source said: “These people are hated both inside and outside of prison, but the difference inside is that you can earn kudos from other inmates by getting one over on them. You have to remember that prison life is incredibly boring. It’s also hierarchical and a lot of these people have nothing to lose.”
Paedophile and Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins, 48, was also killed in prison in October last year when he was stabbed in the neck at HMP Wakefield, another high-security prison. Two men have been charged with his murder.
Weeks later at the same prison Kyle Bevan, 33, jailed for murdering his partner’s two-year-old daughter, Lola James, was also killed. Three fellow inmates have been charged with his murder.
The head of the Prison Governors’ Association has said prisoners like Huntley are facing increasingly violent attacks from inmates with “nothing to lose”.
Tom Wheatley, the president of the PGA, which represents governors in England and Wales, said those serving lengthy sentences or whole-life tariffs in high-security institutions had “no fear” of being given additional time in prison. They could even earn status by singling out famous child murderers and paedophiles.
Mr Wheatley, who was the governor at HMP Wakefield for nearly five years until March 2024, said that prisoners are serving longer sentences, so there was little incentive to resist committing a vicious attack
He said: “As prison sentences have become longer, and as more prisoners are given whole-life tariffs or given minimum sentences of 20, 30 or 40 years, it is harder to persuade them to hold back on their violent instincts. They have nothing to lose.
“If you are serving a long sentence, you can feel as if you don’t have a life ahead of you – your family may well have disowned you, your relationships may have broken down. And in those circumstances, you have to make your alliances among the people you live with – your fellow inmates – to survive
“In those circumstances, making yourself notorious, being well-known by committing a violent act, might help. If you murder a high-profile child murderer or paedophile, you can establish yourself as a dangerous man. That has some value.”
Ministry of Justice figures show there were seven homicides in prisons in England and Wales in 2025, up from six in 2024. From 2019 to 2023, there were between one and three each year.
Andrea Coomber, the chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said vulnerable prisoners, such as sex offenders and high-profile murderers, are often seen as easy targets.
She said: “There are hierarchies in every prison, and sex offenders are right at the bottom. We are hearing from many sex offenders that they are spending more time self-isolating in their cells because they do not feel safe.”
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice said: “This government inherited a prisons system in crisis, overcrowded and with significant staffing shortages. We are recruiting more officers and deploying them where they’re most needed, as well as investing £40m in new security measures to clamp down on the contraband that fuels violence behind bars.”
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