One of Britain’s most notorious child killers, Ian Huntley, has died following an attack at the prison where he was serving a life sentence, police said.
Huntley killed 10-year-old girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in eastern England in 2002, in a case that shocked the country.
Huntley, 52, suffered serious injuries when he was attacked at Frankland maximum security prison in north-east Durham on February 26.
“He died in hospital this morning”, a spokesman for the police force said in a statement on Saturday.
A spokesman for the government’s justice ministry said the double murder of Holly and Jessica “remains one of the most shocking and horrific cases in our nation’s history, and our thoughts are with their families”.
Huntley killed the two close friends after leaving a family barbecue to buy sweets in the village of Soham, Cambridgeshire, on August 4, 2002.
Their disappearance sparked a massive search involving hundreds of police officers and appeals for help.
