National News

Huntley urged to drop attack case

© Press Association 2011

2:51pm Saturday 31st July 2010

A leading victims' campaigner has said Soham murderer Ian Huntley should drop his claim for compensation after he was badly injured by another inmate and be grateful the death penalty was no longer in force.

The killer of schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman had his throat slashed in March and now claims the prison service failed in their duty of care towards him.

It was reported he could win almost £100,000 in damages, though the Ministry of Justice said the claim would be "vigorously defended".

Norman Brennan, the founder of the Victims of Crime Trust, said: "If Huntley had the slightest remorse for the terrible murder of these two girls he would drop the case immediately and get on with serving his sentence, and just be thankful it's not pre-1967 when he may well have been sentenced to the hangman's noose."

Mr Brennan, 51 and a retired police officer, said inmates convicted of such heinous crimes should forfeit their right to sue.

"Yet again, the true victims in this - the parents of Holly and Jessica - are reminded of their tragic loss as a result of an offender attempting to seek compensation."

He said if Huntley, 36, won his claim, the families should sue him for every penny.

"What message is sent out when the two families in this matter received a maximum £11,000 and yet Huntley, for injuries received while serving a sentence, could get many times that. Huntley is the one responsible for being in prison. He should shut up."

The former school caretaker, who murdered the 10-year-old friends in Cambridgeshire in 2002 and is serving a life sentence, was left scarred by the attack at Frankland Prison, County Durham in March. He is alleged to have been cut with a razor blade by Damien Fowkes and needed hospital treatment.

Colin Moses, national chairman of the Prison Officers Association (POA), said: "This fits right in with something we think is overtaking the prison service - a compensation culture from inmates. This claim has to be set against the levels of compensation for staff who are attacked. What's he going to do with any money he gets anyway?"

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