Ian Huntley, the Soham child killer, died from injuries sustained in an attack at HMP Frankland in County Durham. The 52-year-old was hit multiple times on the head with a metal bar in a workshop at the high-security prison. He was airlifted to Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary, where his life support was switched off on March 7. Fellow inmate Anthony Russell, 43, has been charged with his murder.
Huntley was serving a life sentence with a minimum term of 40 years for the murders of 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2002. His death is not an isolated incident; several other high-profile inmates have been killed by fellow prisoners in the UK's prison system.
Robert Maudsley, the UK's longest-serving prisoner, has spent over 17,000 consecutive days in solitary confinement. He was sentenced to life in 1974 for the manslaughter of John Farrell, a child abuser, and later killed three men behind bars. His cell at Wakefield prison is fitted with a Perspex screen, earning him the nickname 'Hannibal the Cannibal'.
Disgraced Lost Prophets singer Ian Watkins was stabbed in the neck in his cell at HMP Wakefield in October last year. Watkins, 48, was serving a 29-year sentence for child sex offences. Two men, Rashid Gedel and Samuel Dodsworth, have denied murdering him and are due to stand trial at Leeds Crown Court.
Child-killer Subhan Anwar was strangled with a pair of tracksuit bottoms in his cell at HMP Long Lartin in February 2013. Fellow inmates Gary Smith and Lee Newell were given whole life sentences for the murder. The judge noted a moral code within the prison population that may be enforced by violence or death.
Psychopathic Damien Fowkes attempted to murder Ian Huntley by slashing his neck with a makeshift knife in 2011, and also strangled child killer Colin Hatch. Fowkes was ordered to serve 20 years for attempted murder and manslaughter. He had pleaded guilty to manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility, citing a hatred of child killers.
