The prison dubbed ‘Monster Mansion’ where Soham killer Ian Huntley was attacked today is home to Britain’s worst criminals who are known for turning on each other.

Huntley suffered serious injuries after being assaulted this morning at HMP Frankland in County Durham, a Category A jail for hundreds of murderers, rapists and terrorists.

The former school caretaker is serving life for killing ten-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman after they left a family barbecue in Cambridgeshire in 2002.

But the attack on Huntley – who was hit with an iron bar in a prison workshop and is now fighting for life – is one of many to have taken place at the maximum security jail.

Manchester Arena bomb plotter Hashem Abedi allegedly attacked several Frankland prison officers with hot cooking oil and makeshift weapons on April 12 last year.

Abedi pleaded not guilty at the Old Bailey last October to the attempted murders of three prison officers and assaulting a fourth, occasioning him actual bodily harm.

He is set to go on trial next January. Abedi was jailed for a record-breaking 55 years in 2020 after being convicted of assisting with the Manchester terror plot in 2017.

That attack saw his brother, suicide bomber Salman Abedi, kill 22 people by detonating a homemade rucksack bomb among a crowd of Ariana Grande gig-goers.

Soham killer Ian Huntley has suffered serious injuries after being attacked at HMP Frankland  

HMP Frankland, which was built in 1983, houses around 850 prisoners across eight wings

HMP Frankland in County Durham is a Category A jail for murderers, rapists and terrorists

Cells at Frankland – pictured in the Separation Unit – are single with their own toilets and sinks

This week, a former cage fighter serving a whole-life tariff for killing his pregnant partner and three children was handed a further life sentence for a hammer attack on a fellow inmate at Frankland.

Damien Bendall, 36, was sentenced on Monday for the attempted murder of Michael Mullaney after smashing him four times in the head with a claw hammer in May 2024.

Bendall’s first blow was to the back of his head, causing Mr Mullaney to fall to the floor before he was hit three more times, Teesside Crown Court was told. The attack in a workshop was so severe that a prison officer believed the victim could be dead. 

When the officer drew his baton and sounded an alarm, Bendall submitted, threw his hammer to one side and put his arms out to show he had stopped the assault.

Bendall also used a claw hammer to conduct the killings in Killamarsh, Derbyshire, in 2021, when he murdered pregnant Terri Harris, 35, her children – 11-year-old Lacey and 13-year-old John Paul – and Lacey’s friend, 11-year-old Connie Gent.

In May 2023, a sexual predator who was jailed for at least 36 years for the murder of primary school teacher Sabina Nessa smashed the toilet bowl in his cell at Frankland and stabbed a guard with a porcelain shard.

Garage worker Koci Selamaj, 37, was jailed for life in April 2022 for murdering Ms Nessa, 28, as she walked through Cator Park in Kidbrooke, South East London.

He admitted wounding one guard with intent to cause really serious harm at Frankland and assaulting another occasioning actual bodily harm.

A court was told Selamaj was in his cell when a prison officer asked if he would be leaving for lunch. Selamaj let out a scream and began to smash up his toilet before arming himself with a shard of porcelain with which he attacked the guard.

The officer, who was stabbed in the knee and forearm, was assisted by colleagues, one of whom was punched two or three times in the face by Selamaj.

Damien Bendall, who is serving a whole-life tariff for murdering his pregnant partner and three children, was handed a further life sentence for a hammer attack on an inmate at Frankland 

HMP Frankland is home to Britain’s worst criminals who are known for attacking each other

Koci Selamaj, who was jailed for at least 36 years for the murder of Sabina Nessa, smashed the toilet bowl in his cell at Frankland and stabbed a guard with a porcelain shard 

HMP Frankland has gym facilities and prisoners have access to a range of physical activities

Michael Parr (left) and Nathan Mann (right) disembowelled an inmate at Frankland in October 2011 so they could eat his liver – and were sentenced to life imprisonment over the attack

Parr and Mann were sentenced over the gruesome death of child rapist Mitchell Harrison, 23

A judge sentenced him to four-and-a-half years in jail in September 2024 and said he should be treated at Broadmoor secure hospital for his mental illness until he is well enough to return to the prison system.

Last May, a former prison officer who was attacked by an inmate while she was on duty launched a campaign for mandatory protective gear for all prison staff in the UK.

Claire Lewis, 50, from Washington in Sunderland, was left with life-threatening injuries after the attack at Frankland in 2010 and has been unable to work ever since.

One of the most disturbing cases in the prison’s history happened in 2011, which saw two prisoners at Frankland disembowel an inmate so they could eat his liver.

Michael Parr and Nathan Mann were jailed for life in 2012 over the death of Mitchell Harrison, 23, who was serving an indefinite sentence for raping a 13-year-old girl.

Parr and Mann had lured Harrison’s into Mann’s cell before launching the attack. Mann attempted to strangle him and then stabbed him in the eye with a pen. 

He then slashed his neck with a weapon made from plastic cutlery and razor blades. As Mann inflicted the gruesome attack, Parr held the victim down by his legs.

Harrison’s abdomen was then cut open exposing his small intestine, but despite their initial plans to remove the victim’s liver, they decided not to go through with it.

Frankland, which was built in 1983 just outside Durham city, houses around 850 prisoners across eight wings and cells are single with their own toilets and sinks.

Courses up to degree level are provided by Milton Keynes College, with prisoners able to work in furniture production, cutting and sewing and recycling.

But Frankland is said to have become so overrun by Islamist gangs that inmates who will not join them are being housed in the jail’s separation centre for their own safety.

Tony Wyatt, a criminal defence barrister who regularly visits the jail, said last year that some prisoners are being forced to serve their sentences in ‘total lockdown’.