Soham killer Ian Huntley remains in hospital in a serious condition after he was attacked in prison.
Durham Constabulary said a prisoner, understood to be Huntley, was assaulted in the workshop of HMP Frankland near Durham on Thursday morning and taken to hospital with head injuries.
A spokesperson for the force said on Friday morning: “There has been no change in the 52-year-old man’s condition overnight – he remains in hospital in a serious condition.”
A prisoner in his mid-40s has been identified as a suspect in the attack, according to police.
Former caretaker Huntley murdered 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman after they left a family barbecue to buy sweets in Soham, Cambridgeshire, on 4 August 2002, then dumped their bodies in a ditch.
He is imprisoned on a life sentence with a recommendation that he serves at least 40 years for the murders.
Thursday’s assault was the latest attempt on Huntley’s life and he was thought to have been kept under close observation to prevent similar attacks.
The Press Association reports Huntley was left in a pool of blood after the most recent incident.
In 2010, robber Damien Fowkes slashed Huntley with a homemade weapon, causing a “severe, gaping cut to the left side of his neck” with a 7in (18cm) wound which required 21 stitches.
Fowkes asked a prison officer: “Is he dead? I hope so.”
He described Huntley as a “notorious child killer, both inside prison and in society in general”.
Meanwhile, Manchester Arena bomb plotter Hashem Abedi is accused of carrying out “terrorist” attacks on prison officers at the maximum security jail with hot cooking oil and makeshift weapons.
He denies three counts of attempted murder after four officers were injured on 12 April.
Former Lostprophets frontman Ian Watkins died after an alleged attack last October at HMP Wakefield, where he was serving a 29-year sentence for child sexual offences.
On Monday, Killamarsh killer Damien Bendall was handed another life sentence after he admitted the attempted murder of a fellow Frankland inmate who he attacked with a claw hammer in a prison workshop.
A prison officer who witnessed the attack thought Bendall, who murdered his partner and three children with a hammer and is serving a whole life tariff, had killed his victim, but he survived.
