‘Psychopath’ admits Ian Huntley murder bid at York prison

Damien Fowkes, 35, pleaded guilty at Hull Crown Court today to slashing Huntley’s throat in Frankland Prison, Durham, in March last year.

Fowkes, from Northampton, also admitted the manslaughter of child killer Colin Hatch, who was strangled at Full Sutton Prison near York in February this year.

He was initially charged with Hatch’s murder but his plea of guilty to manslaughter was accepted on the grounds of his diminished responsibility.

Fowkes stood in the sealed dock surrounded by five prison officers, wearing a grey sweatshirt and a black hat.

He has a large scar down the left side of his face and a tattoo down the right.

An application for him to come into court in handcuffs was rejected by the judge.

The prisoner spoke to confirm his name and enter his pleas.

He denied murdering Hatch but admitted manslaughter.

Graham Reeds, prosecuting, said this plea was acceptable.

The court heard how Fowkes shows “strong psychopathic traits”.

The court heard that Fowkes attacked Huntley on the healthcare wing at Frankland, where the Soham killer had been working.

Using a home-made weapon, he slashed Huntley, causing a “severe gaping cut to the left side of his neck”.

The judge was told the wound was 7in (18cm) long and required 21 stitches.

Mr Reeds said: “It was good fortune that it missed all the vital structures in the neck.”

He said Fowkes asked a prison officer: “Is he dead? I hope so.”

When he asked if he had killed Huntley and was told he had not, Fowkes said: “I wish I had.”

Mr Reeds said the weapon used was “fashioned from a razor that was melted on to the handle of a knife or some other plastic utensil”.

He described Huntley as a “notorious child killer, both inside prison and in society in general”.

He went on: “The defendant has since expressed a particular hatred for child killers.”

Fowkes was in prison serving a life sentence for robbery which was handed down in 2002.

But the court heard his minimum tariff of five years and 220 days had already expired when he attacked Huntley.

The judge was told he killed Hatch on D Wing at Full Sutton. This is for vulnerable prisoners and Fowkes was there due to self-harming incidents.

The court heard Hatch was jailed for life in 1994, with a minimum tariff of 25 years, for the sexually motivated murder of an eight-year-old boy.

The judge was told the case was notorious at the time because Hatch had been on licence “for a similar but non-fatal sexual attack on a boy of the same age” when he murdered the youngster.

Mr Reeds said Fowkes barricaded himself and Hatch into a cell and told prison officers he would not kill him if they stayed outside.

The officers dealt with it as a hostage situation.

But, with the officers outside, Fowkes killed Hatch using strips of bedding as ligatures.

At one point, Fowkes told officers: “He’s a nonce. He doesn’t deserve to live.”

He later claimed Hatch had contacted him by telepathy, asking him to kill him.

Mr Reeds said Fowkes said he was motivated to commit both attacks because “they were offenders against children”.

He said Fowkes remarked; “They just do my head in. It was the same when I did Huntley.”

The court was told that Fowkes chased Huntley around the healthcare unit after slashing him across the neck.

Mr Reeds said Huntley had finished his shift as a cleaner in the unit when he was attacked on March 21 last year.

He had been working there for several months.

The prosecutor said he was sitting on a sofa, waiting for an escort back to the wing when Fowkes approached him.

Mr Reeds said: “The first Huntley knew of the attack was when the defendant approached him without any warning at all and slashed his neck with a home-made weapon.”

The court then heard that Fowkes chased Huntley, trying to stab him again.

“He tried several times to stab or slash Huntley in the chest but Huntley managed to get away, run down the corridor of the healthcare wing and into the Listeners’ Suite at the far end,” Mr Reeds said.

The court heard that Huntley ran about 50ft (15m) down the corridor.

Mr Reeds said evidence from Huntley’s bloodstained shirt showed that “two blows were struck - one to the neck and one to the chest”.

The prosecutor went on: “Huntley was pursued by the defendant into the Listeners’ Room.

“The defendant chased him around the room, still armed with the weapon, but he couldn’t catch him.”

Mr Reeds said an officer arrived and distracted Fowkes by telling him to drop the weapon.

He said: “Huntley managed to throw an item of furniture at the defendant and used this twin distraction in order to aid his getaway.”

The court heard that Huntley managed get out of the Listeners’ Room.

“He ran back down the same corridor and got into the servery,” Mr Reeds said.

“Once he was in the servery, he shut the door and held it shut. But the defendant still pursued him with the weapon and he brushed off the attempts of two prison officers to stop him.

“As Huntley held the door shut, the defendant tried to force his way in.”

More prison officers arrived and Fowkes gave himself up, “saving Huntley from further attack”, after he first threatened to cut himself.

Later, the court heard, two weapons were found on the defendant. The other was a plastic utensil sharpened to a point.

Huntley was still conscious when Fowkes was apprehended by the officers.

Fowkes returned to court after lunch wearing an Arsenal football shirt.

Again surrounded by prison officers, he turned to the press bench and made a gesture of pointing to and kissing the Arsenal badge on the shirt.

The court heard Fowkes was taken to a segregation unit after attacking Huntley, where he told an officer: “I’ve been planning it for weeks.”

The judge was told how Hatch was killed at Full Sutton prison, near York, on February 22 this year.

Officers had been monitoring him on CCTV because of a report he had armed himself with a weapon.

But footage taken at the time showed him being “cheerful and non-confrontational”.

But Fowkes went into another prisoner’s cell, where Hatch was, and ordered the third inmate out.

He barricading the door with a locker against the bedhead.

Officers watched through the observation window as he threatened him with a makeshift weapon.

But Fowkes soon covered the tiny window with toilet paper.

The court heard Hatch was told to tie his own legs together as the defendant bound him up.

Fowkes eventually pulled his prisoner on to the bed, tied his feet to the bottom and used the bedhead as leverage as he strangled Hatch using ligatures.

Mr Reeds said Fowkes said later he was now “more notorious than Ian Huntley”.

The court heard Fowkes has a long criminal record dating back to 1990, mainly involving robbery and weapons offences.

Three psychiatrists and two psychologists have examined him and agreed he has a “deep seated disorder of great severity”.

Mr Reeds said Fowkes “is and will remain a danger”.

The court heard sending him to a secure mental hospital was not an option, partly because of the danger he would pose to others like Hatch and Huntley.

The judge was also told Fowkes had a history of self-harm.

Mr Reeds said he has “cut himself open very seriously on 27 separate occasions in prison”.

Andrew Hall QC, defending, said the court had heard no evidence Huntley suffered lasting long-term physical effects.

He said the former school caretaker was back on his wing three days after the attack.

The judge, Mr Justice Coulson, adjourned the case until tomorrow at 11am when he will sentence Fowkes.

As he left court, the defendant shouted “Allahu Akbar” - which means “God is greatest”.