BRITAIN: A review of the way Ian Huntley is looked after in jail was under way last night after the child murderer made a new suicide bid despite official warnings that he was an "ongoing significant risk".
Huntley was found unconscious in his cell at Wakefield high security prison in West Yorkshire at 1.19am following a suspected overdose.
Sources said Huntley is in intensive care at Pinderfields general hospital in Wakefield, where his stomach had been pumped. The former school caretaker (32) is now under heavy sedation.
Yesterday's incident raised more questions about the prison service's supervision of one of Britain's highest-profile murderers. Huntley had already tried to kill himself in June 2003 while awaiting trial for the murders of 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Soham, Cambridgeshire.
A report into the 2003 attempt was released by the Home Office less than eight weeks ago but received no publicity. It said: "Mr Huntley presents an ongoing significant risk of self-harm.
"In managing him, the safest strategy is to assume he will commit another act of self-harm if given the opportunity."
Following Huntley's latest apparent overdose, a community leader in Soham criticised the prison authorities for being "lax" and said Huntley must serve his sentence.
Questions may also be raised about procedures at Wakefield prison, where serial killer Harold Shipman committed suicide in January 2004.
Sources said Huntley had apparently indicated again in recent weeks that he wanted to die. Police sources said Holly's and Jessica's parents were being kept informed of developments.
Rob Kellett, the prison service official who wrote the 2003 report, is to carry out a review of Huntley's "management strategy", a Home Office spokeswoman said.
In his first suicide attempt, Huntley hid 29 anti-depressants in a box of teabags and was found suffering a fit on the floor of his cell at Woodhill Prison, near Milton Keynes. - (PA)