A journalist who covered the disappearance of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman has described his chilling interactions with Ian Huntlet. It comes after child killer Huntley died in hospital, around a week after being attacked at the maximum security prison in which he was being held.

Huntley, a former school caretaker, was jailed for killing 10-year-old girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Soham, Cambridgeshire, on August 4, 2002 in a crime that shocked the nation.

A reporter who covered the case of the missing girls has spoken out about what it was like at the time when they came across Huntley before he was arrested.

Nick Hopkins, wrote in the Guardian of walking past and asking Huntley why the radiators at Soham Village College were so hot.

Nick remembered: "What was the caretaker thinking when he opened the doors to Soham village college to let us in? Or when we asked, idly, why in the warmth of summer, the radiators in the classrooms were running so hot?"

After his arrest and trial, Huntley was given two-life sentences with a minimum of 40 years to be served for the murders of Holly and Jessica, whose bodies were found after a 13 day search in a ditch around 10 miles from Soham. He avoided a whole-life tarriff as the Criminal Justice Act 2003 was passed a day after his conviction.

During the investigation into the killings, Huntley was at one point given an alibi by his then-partner, teaching assistant Maxine Carr, but this fell apart following police questioning. Later, he was arrested when police found pieces of the Manchester United shirts at his workplace that had been worn by the girls when they went missing.

It was reported that Huntley had been attacked at HMP Frankland, a category A prison, in County Durham. If a prison is category A it means it has the highest level of security.

According to reports, Huntley was taken to hospital after suffering severe brain trauma; it was reported that he had been attacked with a spiked metal pole, reported the Sun, and he was taken off life support on Friday.

In a statement a spokesperson for Durham constabulary said: "A man who was attacked at HMP Frankland in Durham last week has died in hospital this morning.

"Ian Huntley, 52, was taken to hospital with serious injuries following an incident in the workshop on the morning of Thursday 26 February.

"A police investigation into the circumstances of the incident is ongoing. A file is being prepared for the Crown Prosecution Service for consideration for charges."

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson added: "The murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman remain one of the most shocking and devastating cases in our nation's history, and our thoughts are with their families."