An inquest into the death of Soham killer Ian Huntley will open next month in County Durham, it has been announced.
Huntley, 52, died earlier this month at Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle after being allegedly attacked with a metal bar in a workshop at HMP Frankland in Durham on 26 February.
Senior coroner Jeremy Chipperfield will hear the inquest opening in Crook, County Durham, on 14 April, the County Durham and Darlington Coroner announced on its website.
Meanwhile Anthony Russell, 43, who has been charged with murdering Huntley at the maximum security jail, is due to have a pre-trial hearing at Newcastle Crown Court on 24 April.
Huntley was serving a life sentence for the 2002 murders of 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.
The former school caretaker killed the best friends after they left a family barbecue to buy sweets in Soham, Cambridgeshire, in August 2002. He dumped their bodies in a ditch 10 miles away.
They were not found for 13 days, despite a search involving hundreds of police.
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At the time Huntley lived with Maxine Carr, who was a teaching assistant at Holly and Jessica’s primary school.
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He denied murdering the girls but was convicted after a trial at the Old Bailey in 2003. He was jailed for life with a recommended minimum term of 40 years.
Carr gave Huntley a false alibi and was jailed for 21 months for perverting the course of justice.
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She is now living under a new identity.
It has been reported that there will be no funeral service for the child killer and it is thought Huntley’s family will scatter his ashes in secret, according to The Sun.
A change.org petition to stop public money being put towards the cost of a death-in-custody funeral for Huntley had passed 57,000 signatures by Friday afternoon.
