LIFE MEANS LIFE
THREE of North Wales’ most evil killers sentenced to whole-life terms have been told they must die in jail.
Murderers Peter Moore, Mark Bridger and Matthew Hardman’s hopes of future release were ended after a final human rights court judgment.
They learned there would be no chance of being freed after judges decided such sentences were not inhumane and degrading.
The news came after triple killer Arthur Hutchinson was informed his whole-life term was lawful and not in violation of Article 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights.
A panel of judges at the European Court of Human Rights voted 14 to 3 that the sentence should be upheld.
The decision shuts the door on a number of other dangerous prisoners hoping to win their freedom.
Had he won, the precedent would have been set for 64 other “lifers” to launch similar action.
There are currently six men from across Wales serving whole-life sentences.
Among them are Mark Bridger, the killer of April Jones, quadruple murderer Peter Moore from Kinmel Bay and Anglesey “vampire killer” Matthew Hardman.
Bridger kidnapped five-year-old April, in Machynlleth, before mur- dering and disposing of her body in October 2012. He was jailed for life in May 2013. Five-year-old April, who suffered from cerebral palsy, disappeared while playing close to her home. Despite a huge police search lasting seven months, her body has never been found.
Bridger had planned to appeal his life prison term but dropped his bid to have his sentence reduced in 2014.
Also serving life in prison is former Bagillt cinema owner Peter Moore who killed four men,
Moore, of Kinmel Bay, was dubbed “the man in black” after committing a series of violent sexual assaults on men culminating in the murder of four of them in 1995.
His first victim was John Henry Roberts, 56, a retired railway worker who lived in a small farmhouse on the outskirts of Caergeiliog near Holyhead. He also killed Edward Carthy, Keith Randles and Tony Davies.
Moore was branded the most dangerous man ever to set foot in Wales at his trial.
Matthew Hardman was detained at Her Majesty’s pleasure after stabbing a 90-year-old woman to death in a horrific “vampire killing”.
Mabel Leyshon was found dead at her home in Llanfairpwll on November 25, 2001, murdered at the hands of Hardman who performed a gruesome ritual, cutting her heart out, placing it on a silver platter and then drinking her blood.
Hardman, who had been Mabel’s paperboy, also placed pokers in the shape of a cross in front of her body. He was just 17.
This latest ruling follows a protracted legal saga over the issue of “life means life” prison terms, under which there is no minimum term and the individual is never considered for release.
In 2008, Hutchinson had a domestic appeal against whole-life tariffs dismissed by the Court of Appeal.
Five years later human rights judges found the power to release a whole life prisoner was unclear in a controversial judgment that raised questions about the sentences.
In a 2015 ruling the European Court of Human Rights threw out Hutchinson’s case. He then applied for his complaint to be passed to the Strasbourg court’s Grand Chamber.