20-07-2025
Ian Huntley whines he is 'being picked on' after guards storm his cell and seize football shirt, DVDs and photos of ex-lover Maxine Carr
Soham child killer Ian Huntley has had his No 10 Manchester United-style shirt - an apparent vile taunt about his victims - confiscated by prison guards following a major backlash, insiders have claimed.
Guards stormed the killer's cell at HMP Frankland, Durham, where he is serving two life sentences with a minimum of 40 years for murdering 10-year-olds Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells at his home in Soham, Cambridgeshire, in August 2002.
A photo of the schoolgirls wearing matching Manchester United shirts - tragically taken on the day Huntley lured them into his house - became synonymous with the desperate search which gripped the country.
In what appears to be a sick jibe, Huntley is understood to have been 'strutting around' prison wearing a red shirt with a white number 10 - the age of his victims - on the back.
Despite prisoners being barred from wearing tops of the football teams they support, Huntley is said to have ordered the top from Sports Direct, making it 'as close to a Man Utd top as he can'.
A source told The Sun: 'They turned over Huntley's cell and confiscated the shirt.
'He won't be getting it back and has been 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 Huntley cover his tracks by providing a false alibi - and other items including DVDs were also seized.
Sources said Huntley was 'moaning' that he was being 'picked on and treated unfairly'.
The Sun reports that Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood was made aware of Huntley's shirt and was happy to hear it had been seized.
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 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.
An image of both girls 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.
