A prisoner has appeared in court charged with the murder of Soham killer Ian Huntley.
Anthony Russell, 43, is accused of murdering the 52-year-old prisoner in an alleged attack with a metal bar in a workshop at maximum security HMP Frankland on 26 February.
Huntley was taken to the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle, where he died nine days later.
Durham Constabulary announced on Tuesday that Russell had been charged with murder.
He appeared at Teesside Crown Court via a videolink from the prison near Durham, for a 10-minute preliminary hearing.
During the brief hearing before Judge Francis Laird KC on Thursday, Russell confirmed his name and date of birth. Sitting at a table in a conference room, he followed the proceedings in court.
He was not asked to enter a plea and was told there will be a pre-trial preparation hearing on 24 April at Newcastle Crown Court.
The hearing comes after he appeared at Newton Aycliffe Magistrates' Court the previous day.
Huntley, an ex-school caretaker, was serving a life sentence for the 2002 murders of 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.
He killed the best friends after they left a family barbecue to buy sweets in Soham, Cambridgeshire, on August 4 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 officers.
At the time, Huntley lived with Maxine Carr who was a teaching assistant at Holly and Jessica’s primary school.
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. She is now living under a new identity.