Evil British killers with whole-life sentences who will never be freed from jail
It's the most severe punishment the British justice system can dole out - and is saved only for the most heinous of convicted killers.
Louis de Zoysa was today given a whole life order for shooting and killing Metropolitan Police sergeant Matt Ratana. The 26-year-old fired an antique revolver at Sgt Ratana while in handcuffs at a custody centre in Croydon, having managed to conceal the weapon beneath his coat.
He now joins a list of the most dangerous offenders in British criminal history, as a Northampton Crown court judge told him "you acted in cold blood". Mr Justice Jeremy Johnson said the aggravating factors in the case outweighed mitigation, saying: "Even as he fell you re-aimed and fired a second shot at him."
Whole life tariffs, or orders, can only be doled out in a small number of murders where the case is so serious, the killer is deemed to dangerous to be released. The crime has to fit a set of extreme set of criteria to warrant the punishment, such as sexual or sadistically motivated murders of children, or killers who have murdered before.
In the past, Home Secretaries could issue whole-life tariffs, although these are now determined by judges. Reforms which passed through Parliament last year meanwhile now allow 18 to 20-year-olds to be given the sentences in exceptional cases, after Manchester Arena bomb plotter Hashem Abedi avoided the term due to his age at the time of the 2017 attack.
Man in 30s dies after being stabbed in park sparking police probe
He was 20 at the time and the minimum age was then 21. There are currently only 67 people - including de Zoysa - to be told they'll serve the rest of their days in prison. Several of these however have come in the past two years alone.
Wayne Couzens was given a whole life order in September 2021 for the rape and murder of Sarah Everard. Triple murderer Anthony Russell was also given one in March last year for killing mum and son Julie and David Williams before raping and murdering Nicole McGregor.
Three others - Sir David Amess' murderer Ali Harbi Ali, fatal arsonist Hakeem Kigundu and Killamarsh killer Damien Bendall - also received the befitting punishments last year. Others in history to join the list include Moors Murderer Ian Brady, Dennis Nilson and Levi Bellfield.
The list includes three women, namely Rose West, Myra Hindley and Johanna Dennehy. Here are some of the 67 people, past and present, who have been told they'll die in jail.
Mark Bridger
Evil beyond words, Mark Bridger was told he'll spend the rest of his days behind bars after he was convicted in 2013 over the abduction and murder of little April Jones. The five-year-old disappeared in her hometown of Machynlleth, Wales, in October 2012 after being seen getting into Bridger's van.
Bridger's crime appalled the nation, with a judge branding him a "pathological liar" as he was locked up in 2013. The sick murderer and paedophile later tried to appeal the sentence, but dropped it the following year.
Mark Bridger (PA)Rose West
In 1995, West was convicted of the murder of ten women and girls in her home in Gloucester. The victims included one of her daughters and a step-daughter.
Her husband Fred West committed suicide in jail before he could be tried for 12 murders. She is one of just two women serving a whole-life tariff, including evil child killer Myra Hindley and serial killer Johanna Dennehy.
Rose West (South West News Service/REX/Shutterstock)
Fred and Rose West (PA)Wayne Couzens
Serving Metropolitan Police officer Couzens kidnapped, raped and murdered 33-year-old Sarah Everard while she was walking home in South London in March 2021. Her body was discovered several days after her disappearance after evil Couzens tried to conceal evidence of his crime in woodland in Kent.
A judge told Couzens his crimes were as serious as a terrorist atrocity after abusing his powers as a police officer to kidnap Sarah, blasting him for robbing Sarah of her life, destroying her family and eroding public trust in the force, particularly women's right to feel safe on the streets.
Russian model killed after calling Putin a 'psychopath' was strangled by her ex
Couzens' abuse of power was what qualified him for the order, judge Lord Justice Fulford told him, as it was put forward he had used the Covid restrictions at the time as a means of abducting Sarah. In March this year, Couzens was given an additional sentence of 19 months for exposing himself to women in three attacks which occurred in the months before Sarah's murder.
Wayne Couzens (SWNS)Thomas Mair
Neo-Nazi Mair murdered Labour MP Jo Cox as she arrived at a constituents' surgery in Birstall, West Yorkshire, in June 2016. The 41-year-old mum-of-two was shot and stabbed by hate-consumed Mair who then tried to flee before being taken down on a nearby street by brave officers.
Subsequent searches of Mair's home in the town found evidence of his far-right ideologies, including Nazi memorabilia and white supremacist literature. Prosecutors later told how he had targeted Ms Cox over her views on refugees. Mair was tried and convicted at the Old Bailey where a judge refused to let him address the court, locking him up for the rest of his life.
Damien Bendall
Last December "brutal" killer Damien Bendall received one for murdering his pregnant partner Terri Harris, 35, her daughter Lacey Bennett, 11, her son John Paul Bennett, 13, and Lacey's friend Connie Gent, also 11, who was staying for a sleepover at Ms Harris' home in Killamarsh, Derbyshire. Bendall, 32, also admitted raping Lacey, in a crime described by the prosecutor as “truly hideous and dreadful” .
Evil Damien Bendall will never be released (Derbyshire Police / SWNS)Robert John Maudsley
Robert John Maudsley was dubbed 'Hannibal The Cannibal' and 'Jaws' for his crimes, although there is no evidence he ate anyone. Currently Britain's longest-serving prisoner, last year marked his 40th year of solitary confinement for the murders of four people - three of which took place in prison.
He was alleged to have eaten part of the brain of one three men he killed in prison earning him his grim nickname. He was jailed for life in 1977 and became Britain's longest serving prisoner following Ian Brady's death in 2017.
Robert Maudsley will die in isolation underneath Wakefield Prison (Unknown)David Fuller
In December 2022, Fuller was handed a whole-life tariff for the murders of Wendy Knell and Caroline Pierce in Tunbridge Wells in 1987, as well as the sexual abuse of more than 100 dead women and girls in hospital mortuaries. Twisted Fuller filmed himself abusing the women's bodies, the court heard.
Fuller's sentencing at the Old Bailey was one of the first few to be televised, as judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb told him he would spend "the rest of his mortal life behind bars".
David Fuller pleaded guilty to murdering Wendy Knell, 25, and Caroline Pierce, 20, in two separate attacks in Tunbridge Wells, Kent (PA)Michael Adebolajo
Adebolajo was one of the two men who murdered fusilier Lee Rigby in May 2013 near Woolwich Barracks, South London. Along with Michael Adebowale, the Islamist terrorist attacked the 25-year-old dad with knives and a cleaver.
A judge sentence Adebolajo - determined to have masterminded the attack - to a whole life order in February 2014, telling him the murder was a "betrayal of Islam" and of the "peaceful Muslim communities who give so much to our country".
Michael Adebolajo (PA)Anthony Russell
Russell was given a whole life order for he murders of Julie Williams, 58, and her son David Williams, 32, who he attacked at separate flats in Coventry. He also admitted to murdering 31-year-old Nicole McGregor, whose body was found in woodland near Leamington Spa.
Anthony Russell (PA)Stephen Port
Also known as the 'Grindr killer', depraved Port used dating apps to meet and kill four men between 2014 and 2015. Gabriel Kovari, 22, Daniel Whitworth, 21, Anthony Walgate, 23, and 25-year-old Jack Taylor were all murdered by Port after he coaxed them to his home in Barking, South London, before giving them fatal doses of the drug GHB.
Port then dumped the men's bodies in a nearby graveyard, with the first three deaths initially passed off by the Met Police as tragic suicides or accidents. The force's failings were later probed by the IOPC, who last year announced they would be re-opening the investigation.
The judge who jailed Port told him his crimes involved a "significant degree of planning", while his act of leaving their bodies in a graveyard "robbed them of their dignity".
'Grindr killer' Stephen Port (PA)John Childs
John Childs was convicted of carrying out six contract killings, including a 10-year-old boy. He was jailed for life in 1979.
Jeremy Bamber
In what has been dubbed the 'White House Farm murders', Bamber shot dead his adoptive parents, sister and six-year-old twin nephews at the family farmhouse is Essex. He was convicted in 1986 and given a whole-life tariff by the Home Secretary. Bamber continues to deny his involvement in the murders.
Bamber claims his sister Sheila, who suffered from schizophrenia, shot the family before turning the gun on herself (Getty Images)Victor Miller
Miller abducted, sexually assaulted and battered a 14-year-old boy to death in Worcestershire in 1988. Police believe he was responsible for 30 unsolved sexual assaults. He has asked to die in prison.
John Duffy - 'Railway killer'
Duffy attacked numerous women and raped and murdered at least three of them in the south of England in the 80s, with his spree earning him the moniker the 'Railway Killer' due to his victims being found on or near rail lines. He later gave evidence against his accomplice David Mulcahy, who was then jailed for life for three murders and seven rapes.
Levi Bellfield
Bellfield is in jail for the murders of schoolgirl Milly Dowler, Amelie Delagrange, and Marsha McDonnell - and the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy (REX/Shutterstock)Levi Bellfield is one of the most dangerous serial killers Britain has known.
He in currently in jail for the murders of schoolgirl Milly Dowler, Amelie Delagrange, 22, and Marsha McDonnell, 19, and the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy, 18.
At the time of his conviction in June 2011, detectives said they believed Bellfield may have been responsible for around 20 attacks on women which were never solved.
Anwar Rosser
Sick, twisted and depraved ex-soldier Rosser was locked away for the rest of his days for the horrific murder of four-year-old Riley Turner at his home in Keighley, West Yorkshire, in January 2013. Described in court as a "psychotic, bullying alcoholic", Rosser stabbed and strangled "happy and bubbly" little Riley in his bed after his parents let Rosser stay at their home.
Rosser attempted to appeal his sentence in 2014 in a bid tossed out by the courts. His motive for the crime remains unknown.
Sick and depraved Anwar Rosser (PA)Christopher Halliwell
'Psychopath' cabbie Halliwell was told he'd never see freedom again after he was convicted for the murder Sian O'Callaghan who had been on a night out in Swindon, Wiltshire, in March 2011. Evil Halliwell also admitted to the murder of missing Becky Godden in a controversial confession which saw detective Steve Fulcher dropped from the force.
Halliwell was never charged over Becky's murder after the confession was ruled inadmissible in court, but the killer will be spending the rest of his days behind bars. Over the years, he's been linked to several other murders of various other women.
Paul Glen
Glen served 13 years for killing a hotelier in 1989. He was released on parole in 2002 and killed again just two years later. He was handed a whole-life sentence by a judge in 2004.
Ali Harbi Ali
Terrorist Ali travelled to Leigh-on-Sea in Essex on October 15 last year and stabbed the veteran Conservative backbencher 21 times with a 12-inch carving knife in front of his aide, before being tackled to the floor by plain-clothes police officers.
Ali, from North London, is said to have chosen Sir David as a target after going through a list of MPs who voted in favour of airstrikes on Syria in the mid-2010s. He was jailed for the rest of his life in April last year after telling jurors he had no regrets of the evil murder.
Ali Harbi Ali (PA)Phillip Heggarty
Heggarty murdered his friend Derk Bennett in a hammer attack in 2003. The High Court ruled his life sentence must mean life.
Mark Martin - 'Sneinton Strangler'
Between December 2004 and January 2005, Martin killed three homeless women in Nottingham. He was sentenced to a whole-life term in 2008.
Mark Hobson
In July 2004, Hobson murdered his girlfriend at their home before luring her twin sister there and killing her too. He fled and then killed an elderly couple a few miles away before going on the run. He was given a life tariff in 2005.
John Maden
Maden drugged, raped and killed his 12-year-old niece Tia Rigg at his Manchester home after luring her there on the pretext of babysitting. He drugged, stabbed, sexually attacked and strangled the schoolgirl. Minutes later he rang police to confess he murdered her - and when asked why, he coldly replied: "Because I felt like it."
A prosecutor described it as a "murder purely for his sexual gratification". He was handed a full life term in 2010.
A judge told him: "The fact that you chose your 12-year-old niece, who put her trust in you, makes what you did all the more unspeakable. This was an horrific crime and her agony must have been prolonged. This is one of those exceptional cases in which the only just punishment requires you to be imprisoned for the rest of your life."
John Maden (Manchester Evening News)Desmond Lee
Lee served 14 years of a life sentence for murdering his landlady in 1990. In 2010, he was convicted of murdering his lover Christopher Pratt by breaking his voice box and a bone in his neck in his flat in Ravensthorpe, West Yorkshire.
Wilbert Dyce
In 2010, Dyce was convicted for killing a murder and two daughter in 1982. A judge told him he would die in prison for the sadistic crimes.
Stephen Griffiths - 'Crossbow Cannibal'
Griffiths was convicted of murdering three woman in Bradford. One of the killings involved the use of a crossbow. He dismembered his victims and dumped their remains. He also claims to have cannibalised them but this has never been proven. He was sentenced to a life term in 2010.
Evil Stephen Griffiths (Getty)John Sweeney - 'Canal Killer'
Convicted in 2011 of murdering two women whose bodies were found mutilated and dumped in canals in London and the Netherlands. Sweeney called himself the "Scalp Hunter", murdering girlfriends Paula Fields and Melissa Halstead. Their bodies were discovered a decade apart in England and Holland and police now fear three other missing women may have suffered the same fate.
A judge called his crimes "terrible and wicked", saying: "I am satisfied that this defendant is controlling in his relationships with women and, chillingly, that control extends to deciding whether they should live or die."
John Sweeney (PA Archive/Press Association Images)George Norman Johnson
He killed Florence Habesch in 2011 to fund his drug addiction. Johnson had already served 20 years of a life sentence for murdering a man in 1986.
John Cooper - 'The Bullseye Killer'
Cooper was given four life sentences in 2011 for the 1985 double murder of brother and sister Richard and Helen Thomas, and the 1989 double murder of Peter and Gwenda Dixon.
David Baxendale
Baxendale served seven years in Spain for murder before being deported back to Britain. In March 2011 he was convicted of repeatedly stabbing a woman in Nutfield, Surrey.
Dale Cregan
Cregan was jailed for life in 2013 for slaying policewomen Nicola Hughes, 23, and Fiona Bone, 32, while on the run for two other murders. The two female police officers were ambushed by Cregan while responding to a burglary in Tameside, Greater Manchester.
The evil drug lord, whose mugshot became well known at the time due to him only having one eye, was moved back into a maximum security psychiatric hospital in 2020.
Dale Cregan (MEN Media)Andrew Dawson - 'The Angel of Mercy Killer'
Out on licence for a previous murder in the 80s when he struck again. He was convicted of murdering two men in 2011.
David Cook
Cook was out on parole for a 1988 murder when he killed again. He strangled another woman to death and the judge gave him a whole life tariff when he was convicted in 2011.
Stephen Farrow
Farrow murdered 77-year-old Betty Yates and Reverend John Suddards, 59. He was convicted in 2012 and given a whole-life sentence.
Joanna Dennehy
In 2014 evil Joanna Dennehy became just the third woman ever to be given a whole life order and was told she'd die in jail. The sneering serial killer murdered three men before randomly selecting and repeatedly stabbing two others in March and April of 2013.
Dennehy grinned and laughed as Mr Justice Spencer told her she was "a cruel, calculating, selfish and manipulative serial killer" as he handed down the jail term at the Old Bailey.
Joanna Dennehy (SWNS.com)
Dennehy's mugshot (PA)Ian McLoughlin
Knifeman Ian McLoughlin, 55, slashed Graham Buck’s throat when the brave dad-of-three caught him robbing an elderly neighbour in July 2013. The triple killer murdered the good Samaritan while on his first day out of prison for a previous murder conviction.
McLoughlin was first jailed for 10 years for manslaughter after he hit Len Delgatty, 49, over the head with a hammer in 1984. He later murdered barman Peter Halls, 55, and was jailed for life, with a minimum of 25 years, in 1992.
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
