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Ian Huntley, who murdered English schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2002, needed hospital treatment yesterday following a failed suicide attempt in prison.
It is believed the killer had taken an overdose of prescription medication at Wakefield high security prison in Yorkshire. A Prison Service spokeswoman confirmed Huntley had received medical care before being transferred back to the prison. An investigation into the incident will be launched. It was the third recorded attempt by the murderer to take his own life.
Huntley was jailed for 40 years for the murders of the two 10-year-olds in Soham, Cambridgeshire, in August 2002. At the 2003 trial of the former secondary school caretaker and his then girlfriend Maxine Carr, it emerged that he had met the two girls as they walked past his home. He then enticed them inside and killed them before hiding their remains.
Huntley's first bid to take his own life happened while he was on remand at Woodhill jail in Milton Keynes in 2003. He had stored 29 pills in a box of tea bags. He made another attempt last September when he had to have his stomach pumped. While in prison, Huntley has been attacked by inmates.
