Ian Huntley Sparks Outrage Over Sick Shirt Stunt Behind Bars
Child killer Ian Huntley has stirred fresh anger after flaunting a red shirt eerily similar to the Manchester United kit famously worn by his victims, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, just before their tragic deaths.
Sources inside the high-security prison say Huntley, now 51, has been spotted wearing a Sports Direct-bought plain red top—deliberately resembling the iconic No. 7 jersey once worn by David Beckham, which Holly and Jessica were seen in during their final photo.
“Everyone thinks he is doing it to satisfy his own sick mind, rather than for football reasons,” a prison insider told The Sun.
Though football shirts are banned in most UK prisons to prevent gang-related clashes and tensions among inmates, Huntley’s imitation jersey doesn’t technically break the rules. That has left prison officers uneasy but effectively powerless to intervene.
He reportedly started wearing the shirt more regularly this year as the weather warmed. Inmates say they’ve seen him heading to healthcare or the gym dressed in the disturbing lookalike top. A fellow prisoner even lodged a formal complaint about it back in May.
The move is widely seen as a calculated, deeply insensitive act aimed at provoking distress.
The former school caretaker, convicted in 2003, is serving a minimum of 40 years for the brutal murders of ten-year-olds Holly and Jessica in Soham, Cambridgeshire, the year prior.
Despite being classified as “high risk” and under constant supervision due to past attacks from other inmates, Huntley has allegedly become “brazen” and “cocky” over time, emboldened rather than subdued by his prison experiences.
Speaking out, former cabinet minister Robert Jenrick condemned the situation in no uncertain terms: “This disgusting murderer shouldn’t be swanning around jail in a shirt designed to insult the memory of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.
It should be ripped off his back by prison officers. The family of those two poor girls is entitled to know that Huntley isn’t getting any special treatment in jail, and that his life is as miserable as it can be made to be.”
The memory of the two young girls continues to haunt the nation. On August 4, 2002, they were lured into Huntley’s home after leaving a family barbecue to buy sweets.
Their bodies were discovered nearly two weeks later, after Huntley and his then-girlfriend Maxine Carr had been arrested. Carr was later jailed for giving him a false alibi, serving just two years of a three-year sentence.
This latest stunt by Huntley is being seen by many as a grotesque taunt, reigniting grief and fury over one of Britain’s most harrowing child murder cases.
As public outrage grows, there are increasing calls for tighter restrictions on inmates convicted of crimes of this nature—especially when their behaviour appears deliberately provocative and harmful.
