Child killer Ian Huntley has been taunted by inmates after having his possessions, including a Manchester United-style football shirt, seized by prison guards.
The 51-year-old school caretaker, who is serving two life sentences for murdering 10-year-olds Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells in 2002, had his cell at HMP Frankland, Durham, raided earlier this month following backlash.
He had reportedly been ‘strutting around’ prison wearing a red shirt with a white number 10 on the back in an apparent vile taunt about his victims.
A photo of the schoolgirls wearing matching Manchester United shirts – taken just 90 minutes before they were last seen on August 4 – became synonymous with the desperate search which gripped the country.
The shirt, which Huntley is thought to have ordered from Sports Direct and was made to look ‘as close to a Man Utd top’ as he could, was later confiscated by guards after being ‘warned about his vile behaviour’.
It’s understood framed pictures of Huntley with his former fiancée Maxine Carr – who was sentenced to 42 months in prison for helping him cover up the murders – and other items including DVDs were also seized.
Following the raid, Huntley has been moved to a more exposed cell where prisoners routinely taunt the killer for losing his prized possessions, according to an insider.
‘They’ve given him merry hell since the story, yelling, “Huntley where’s your shirt?” in football chant style,’ a source told The Sun.
‘They’re shouting insults and calling him “sicko” and stuff. They’ve also mocked him about losing the Carr pictures. Huntley’s livid. He’s been going up the wall.
‘The story’s made the prison bosses realise that they have to treat him the same as everyone else and not give him special treatment.’
Inmates at HMP Frankland complained about the football-style shirt in May but nothing was done, according to The Sun.
It is understood that because it is not an actual football shirt, Huntley had not broken any prison rules by wearing it.
The move was criticised by Robert Jenrick who said Huntley should not be ‘swanning around’ in jail insulting the memory of his victims.
The Tory shadow justice secretary said it should be ‘ripped off his back’ by prison guards.
Guards later ‘stormed’ his cell and confiscated the shirt. As a further punishment he was also moved to a new cell in the middle of a landing, where he is said to be more exposed to other inmates.
HMP Frankland is a Category A prison in Durham that houses terrorists and killers including Manchester Arena bomber Hashem Abedi, disgraced police officer Wayne Couzens and serial killer Levi Bellfield.
An image of Jessica and Holly wearing matching Man Utd tops was one of the last haunting images of them before they went missing. They were later discovered by police burned and dumped in a bin.
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.
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 Ministry of Justice does not comment on individual prisoners, but replica sportswear has not been permitted in UK prisons for several years.