Not a penny should go to Huntley says tragic mother

The killer of schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman had his throat slashed in March and now says the prison service failed in their duty of care towards him.

It was reported that he could recoup almost 100,000, although the Ministry of Justice said the claim would be "vigorously defended".

Ms Payne, who received 8,000 in compensation when her eight-year-old daughter Sarah was abducted and murdered by convicted sex offender Roy Whiting 10 years ago, said Huntley "shouldn't get a penny".

"I got 8,000. Can anyone honestly tell me it can be right that the killer of Holly and Jessica should get 100,000? He shouldn't get a penny."

Campaigner Norman Brennan, the founder of the Victims of Crime Trust, said Huntley should drop his claim and be "thankful" he was not hanged.

He said: "If Huntley had the slightest remorse for the terrible murder of these two girls he would drop the case immediately and get on with serving his sentence, and just be thankful it's not pre-1967 when he may well have been sentenced to the hangman's noose."

Mr Brennan, 51 and now retired from the police, said inmates convicted of such heinous crimes should forfeit their right to sue.

He said if Huntley won his claim, the families should sue him for every penny.

Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said she believed violence in jails needed to be taken seriously.

She said: "When the courts sentence offenders to custody, they sentence them to loss of liberty and, hopefully, to the chance of some form of rehabilitation, not to violent attack or abuse."