The former school caretaker was airlifted to hospital, where he was reportedly placed on a ventilator, with sources claiming he had a 5% chance of survival.
A source told The Sun newspaper: “It is now looking like he will not pull through, barring a miracle. Huntley never recovered from the battering and never stood much of a chance of doing so.”
Anthony Russell, a triple killer and rapist, is suspected of carrying out the attack in a prison workshop.
Huntley had previously survived at least two attacks in jail.
In 2005, an inmate threw boiling water over him while he was on the healthcare wing of Wakefield Prison, West Yorkshire.
In 2010, he underwent emergency surgery after his throat was cut with a homemade weapon. Damien Fowkes, 35, another inmate, later pleaded guilty to attempted murder at Hull Crown Court.
After the latest attack, Huntley’s daughter said there was a “special place in hell” for her father.
Samantha Bryan said she was “glad” to hear he had been attacked and started crying with an “overwhelming sense of relief” because she thought he was dead.
She said: “It felt like I could breathe again. I felt if he died, that burden died with him. I have always been judged for being his daughter – it has been a very difficult thing to deal with over the years.”
It was previously reported that Huntley wore a red Manchester United football shirt around prison, which caused friction with other inmates. His two victims were photographed wearing similar tops shortly before they were killed and it quickly became the image associated with his case.
Huntley was jailed for life with a minimum sentence of 40 years in December 2003 after he was found guilty of the two murders. Judges told him he had “little or no hope” of being released.
The two children had left a family barbecue to buy sweets when they were killed.
During his trial, Huntley told jurors the two girls went into his house because Holly had a nosebleed. He insisted she drowned in the bath and that he killed Jessica to silence her screams.
Huntley initially claimed the pair had left his house alive, but eventually confessed to dumping their bodies in a remote ditch, cutting off their clothes and burning their bodies to cover his tracks.
In a leaked recording in 2018, Huntley appeared to admit to murdering one of the girls after accidentally killing the other.
During the search for the girls, Huntley was filmed on television saying he was likely to be the last person to have seen them on the day they disappeared, and expressed sympathy to the families.
HMP Frankland is home to many of the country’s most notorious criminals.
Its inmates include Wayne Couzens, the former police officer who murdered Sarah Everard, and Levi Bellfield, the serial killer.
Michael Adebolajo, one of the two terrorists who killed soldier Lee Rigby, is also being held in the prison.
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