Is Ian Huntley Still Alive? Soham killer remains in serious condition after HMP Frankland attack

Questions about whether ian huntley still alive have surfaced after the Soham killer was found seriously injured at HMP Frankland and taken to hospital. The discovery follows an alleged attack inside the prison that has prompted a formal investigation and a police update on his condition.

Is Ian Huntley Still Alive: hospital condition and police update

Questions that ian huntley still alive follow his being found in a pool of blood at HMP Frankland in Durham on Thursday and taken to hospital with significant head trauma. Durham Constabulary said there had been no change in the 52-year-old's condition overnight and that "he remains in hospital in a serious condition. "

Found in a pool of blood at HMP Frankland workshop

The latest assault reportedly left Huntley bludgeoned with a makeshift weapon in a workshop at HMP Frankland. He was discovered in a pool of blood after what police described as an alleged attack by an unknown inmate on Thursday, and was taken from the prison to hospital for treatment of his head injuries.

Investigation: man in his mid-40s detained within the prison

Police earlier identified a man in his mid-40s who is being investigated over the incident; he has not been arrested and remains in detention within the prison. The force handling the case has said the detained man remains in custody inside the jail while inquiries continue.

Previous violent attacks on Huntley, including the 2010 slashing

This is not the first time Huntley has been targeted in custody. In 2011 an inmate who slashed Huntley's throat with a makeshift knife was jailed for life. Damien Fowkes was later sentenced to a minimum of 20 years for the attempted murder of Huntley in March 2010 and for the manslaughter of child killer Colin Hatch. Fowkes inflicted a seven-inch wound on Huntley's neck and the court was told it was only "good fortune" that the weapon missed anything vital.

Commentary included in the record notes that any prisoner convicted of a child sex crime is a target for other inmates, and that from his first day inside there was a price on Huntley's head — described as a promise of "respect" for anyone who attacked him. An account in the context even records an infamous villain saying he once witnessed a planned prison knife attack on a child sex offender.

Huntley would have been on Rule 43 and held in the prison's unit for vulnerable inmates, a unit that typically houses mostly sex offenders and police informants.

Soham murders, the trial and Huntley's conviction

Huntley is the former school caretaker who murdered two 10-year-old schoolgirls, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, in Soham. The girls were best friends and pupils in the same class at Soham's junior school. They went missing on 4 August 2002 after leaving a family barbecue to go for a walk in the small town near Cambridge.

Their disappearance made national headlines and sparked police appeals and tireless searches of the town and the flat countryside of The Fens. An image of the girls side by side in matching Manchester United shirts became particularly memorable. A fortnight after searches began, their bodies were found in a ditch about 10 miles away, near RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk; the girls had been asphyxiated.

Suspicions were raised about Huntley during the search because he gave detailed media interviews and feigned concern for the girls. He came out of his house in Soham and sat in his car shortly after speaking to a journalist. A trial judge later said Huntley had added to the families' grief by pretending to help and offering words of sympathy to Holly's father.

TV reporter Debbie Tubby gave evidence at the trial and said that four days after the girls went missing Huntley asked her if police had found their clothes. He also told her police had searched his house and that he believed he was the last person to see the girls alive. Huntley gave another media interview at the College Close home he shared with his girlfriend Maxine Carr.

Huntley was pictured in 2002 and was later jailed for life in 2003. He was sentenced to at least 40 years in custody and was told by a judge he had "little hope of release. "