Huntley Prison Privileges Xbox: Family Outrage Over Abuse

Soham child murderer Ian Huntley has had his prison privileges restored only two months after they were downgraded for appearing to taunt the families of his victims.

The change in regime means that Huntley is once again able to play Xbox, will have more money to spend in the canteen and can have longer visits, The Sun reported.

Guards stormed the killer’s cell at HMP Frankland, Durham in July following backlash over reports he had been ‘strutting around’ in a red Manchester United-style shirt.

The clothing item is significant because it was believed by authorities to be a sick reference to the matching Man Utd football kits worn by schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman at the time of their disappearance in 2002.

Huntley’s shirt even sported a white number 10 on the back – the age of his two victims.

Despite prisoners being barred from wearing football jersies, Huntley is said to have ordered the top from Sports Direct, making it ‘as close to a Man Utd top as he can’.

But it is understood that because Huntley was not wearing an actual football shirt, he had not broken any prison rules by wearing it.

The move was criticised by shadow justice secrtary Robert Jenrick who said Huntley should not be ‘swanning around’ in jail insulting the memory of his victims.

Holly Wells (right) and Jessica Chapman (left), both 10, were killed by Huntley in 2002 in a double murder which horrified the nation

School caretaker Ian Huntley (pictured), 45, was sentenced to two life terms over the murders

The Tory shadow justice secretary said the shirt should be ‘ripped off his back’ by prison guards.

It’s understood framed pictures of Huntley with his former fiancée Maxine Carr – who was sentenced to 42 months in prison for helping Huntley cover his tracks by providing a false alibi – and other items including DVDs were also seized.

An image of both girls wearing matching Man Utd tops was one of the last haunting images of them before they went missing.

Following the seizure of the red shirt, the killer was moved from an ‘enhanced’ prison regime – which comes with additional privileges – to a ‘standard’ one.

However, only two months after that change was made, Huntley has now had full privileges restored, including access to his Xbox.

A source reportedly told the newspaper: ‘Huntley is happy as Larry again, despite what he’s done — and it’s pretty outrageous.

‘Some of the staff and other inmates are angry about it and see his treatment as a bit of a joke.

‘It makes a mockery out of the incentives scheme, and it usually takes inmates months to get back up to enhanced.’

Huntley (left) was convicted of the murders after pleading not guilty. His girlfriend at the time Maxine Carr (right) gave him a false alibi

Despite being responsible for the murders, Huntley gave TV interviews and joined in searches while his then-girlfriend Maxine Carr gave him a false alibi.

The bodies of Holly and Jessica were discovered 13 days later in Soham, Cambridgeshire, burned in a ditch near an air base in Lakenheath, Suffolk, in a case that horrified the nation.

Huntley is currently serving two life sentences with a minimum of 40 years for murdering the two girls at his home in Soham, Cambridgeshire in August 2002.

Carr even showed off an end-of-term card the girls had sent her, covered in loving comments and kisses.

Huntley, meanwhile, repeatedly spoke of how he was the last person to see the girls before their apparent disappearance.

He also helped organised community events to help the search effort.

The truth was that Huntley had lured the girls into the home he shared with Carr, as they passed by.

He has never fully revealed what took place there, but within an hour both girls were dead.

Then he hid their bodies near RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk, six miles away, and later returned to set fire to them.

When he was in court, Huntley lamely claimed that both schoolgirls had died accidentally.

He said Holly drowned in his bath and that he inadvertently suffocated Jessica while trying to stifle her screams.

But in 2018 he confessed to deliberately killing Jessica to stop her from raising the alarm. He continued to insist that Holly’s death was an accident.

Huntley was jailed for life in 2005. Carr was jailed for perverting the course of justice and was released in 2004 with a new identity.

The Prison Service have been approached for comment.