Prison service deny Ian Huntley 'will die without a liver transplant'

The Prison Service have denied reports Ian Huntley is in desperate need of a liver transplant.

This morning a prison spokesperson dismissed newspaper claims Huntley could die without a transplant following a suicide bid two months ago.

The 33-year-old Soham murderer was reported to have turned yellow with liver failure at Wakefield Prison in West Yorkshire.

Huntley took more than 50 super-strength co-codamol painkillers in September but recovered after he told prison staff what he had done.

His stomach was pumped but the drugs seriously damaged his liver.

It was his third suicide attempt after he was jailed for life in December 2003 for the murders of ten year olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Soham, Cambridgeshire.

The mother of a girl that Huntley raped when she was 14 said: "It won't be a pleasant life but as far as I'm concerned he doesn't deserve a transplant.

"A lot of good people wait years on a transplant list and never get one.

"To include him would be an insult to them after what he did."

Huntley made his first suicide bid while on remand at Woodhill jail in Milton Keynes in 2003.

He had been pretending to take his anti-depressant pills, but secretly hoarded 29 of them in a box of teabags.

Since then he had been given his regular dose of anti-depressants in liquid form.

A report into that suicide attempt warned that he presented an "ongoing significant risk" of self-harm.

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Huntley's second attempt to kill himself was at Wakefield last year, when he swallowed anti-depressant tablets he bought from fellow convicts.

Sources at Wakefield believed Huntley was so determined to obtain tablets that he bartered "luxury" goods such as tobacco on the prison black market.

He was found unconscious and had to have his stomach pumped.

After the latest attempt two months ago, he has undergone medical tests to determine if the liver damage can be repaired.

A prison source said: "We think it's very serious.

"He's very yellow, even the whites of his eyes.

"He's told people his liver is completely knackered and he doesn't seem bothered that it could kill him.

"He even seems pleased. He just said: 'Perhaps I'll succeed after all.'

"One thing is for certain, there's no way doctors could consider him for a transplant - it would cause uproar.

"He brought this on himself and must face the consequences."

Huntley's third suicide bid came just a day before the second anniversary of a ruling that he must serve at least 40 years behind bars.

After his hospital treatment he was led back to a prison van in a wheelchair guarded by 12 armed police officers and four prison staff.

A three-vehicle police escort accompanied the van back to prison.

While in prison, Huntley has been subjected to attacks from fellow inmates. In October last year he was held at knifepoint after being ambushed on his way back to his cell after a meal.

He has also reportedly gone on hunger strike in the past in protest at tough conditions in prison.

Huntley, who worked as a caretaker at Soham Village College, killed the schoolgirls at his home in August 2002 and then dumped their bodies near a U.S. airbase.