In 1985, Margaret Thatcher wrote to her Home Secretary Leon Brittan, stating: "I do not think that either of these prisoners should ever be released from custody. Their crime was the most hideous and cruel in modern times." She was referring to Moors Murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley. Five years later, in 1990, Hindley became the first woman in England and Wales to receive a whole-life term, 24 years after she and Brady were first sentenced to life for the sexual abuse, torture, and murder of three children.
What Are Whole-Life Orders?
Whole-life orders have existed since 1983. The Sentencing Council states they are reserved for only the most serious cases of murder. As of September 2025, the Ministry of Justice reports 74 whole-life prisoners in England and Wales. Several others have died while serving such terms. These orders ensure that the most heinous criminals remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural lives.
Myra Hindley
Between 1963 and 1965, Myra Hindley and Ian Brady tortured and murdered five children: Pauline Reade (16), John Kilbride (12), Keith Bennett (12), Lesley Ann Downey (10), and Edward Evans (17). Their bodies were buried in shallow graves on Saddleworth Moor. Hindley and Brady were jailed for life on May 6, 1966, for the murders of John, Lesley Ann, and Edward. It was not until 21 years later that they admitted to also killing Pauline and Keith. The Moors Murders shocked the nation and continue to haunt Manchester. The pair were convicted just six months after the abolition of the death penalty. In 1990, Home Secretary David Waddington imposed a whole-life order on Hindley, though she was not informed until four years later. She unsuccessfully challenged the order and died in 2002. Brady died in 2017 at age 79.
Mark Fellows
Contract killer Mark "The Iceman" Fellows holds the distinction of being the only criminal on this list with two whole-life orders. In 2015, he gunned down Salford 'Mr Big' Paul Massey outside his home. Three years later, he killed Massey's friend John Kinsella, a Merseyside 'mob fixer', as Kinsella walked his dogs with his partner. Liverpool Crown Court heard that Massey's murder was part of a feud between rival gangs the A Team and the 'Anti' or 'AA Team'. Sentencing Fellows in January 2019, Mr Justice Davis stated: "I have never had to deal with a contract killer of your kind before. There are few judges who have. Just punishment in your case requires you to be kept in prison for the rest of your life." In November 2025, Fellows, along with inmates David Taylor (64) and Lee Newell (57), was found guilty of killing Kyle Bevan at HMP Wakefield using makeshift weapons, including one made from a television part. Fellows and Newell were already serving whole-life orders; judge Mrs Justice McGowan imposed new and separate life terms for them at Leeds Crown Court.
Harold Shipman
Harold Shipman, a trusted family doctor in Hyde, Tameside, became Britain's most prolific serial killer when he was jailed for life for murdering 15 elderly women patients on January 31, 2000. It later emerged he had killed hundreds more. A public inquiry led by Dame Janet Smith concluded he killed at least 215 people, mostly elderly women. In July 2002, Home Secretary David Blunkett ruled that Shipman should serve a whole-life tariff. Shipman took his own life in his cell at Wakefield Prison in 2004.
Dale Cregan
Dale Cregan murdered two female police officers in one of Manchester's most notorious crimes while on the run for a double gangland killing. One-eyed Cregan lured PCs Fiona Bone and Nicola Hughes to a house in Mottram-in-Longdendale with a bogus report of a break-in. He lay in wait, shot them both, and threw a grenade onto their bodies in September 2012. The drug dealer had been at large after murdering gangland rivals Mark Short and his father David Short. Cregan handed himself in after killing the officers. He admitted the four murders during a high-profile trial at Preston Crown Court in 2013 and received a whole-life order.
Trevor Hardy
Serial killer Trevor Hardy, dubbed "The Beast of Manchester", murdered three victims—Lesley Stewart, Wanda Skal, and Sharon Mosoph—in north-east Manchester over 15 months starting in late 1974. His crimes overlapped with the start of Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe's spree. After killing Sharon in March 1975, Hardy went into hiding and was living rough in Broadhurst Park, Moston, when arrested the following month. He had filed his teeth down to points to prevent incrimination by bite marks. Hardy was found guilty of murder and given three life sentences. In 2008, he asked for a minimum 30-year term, but Mr Justice Teare at the High Court rejected the plea, stating Hardy did not accept guilt and showed no remorse. Hardy died of a heart attack in his cell at Wakefield Prison in September 2012 at age 67.
Stephen McColl
Hitman and armed robber Stephen McColl, known as 'Boom Boom Magoo', was a GMP informant from Salford. He killed Michael Doran after the 22-year-old told police McColl planned to shoot another criminal; McColl suspected Doran was an informant. He also tortured and shot Philip Noakes in the chest in Worsley Woods after a falling out. On August 31, 2006, McColl was found guilty of both murders. The judge, Mr Justice Henriques QC, sentenced him to a whole-life term, deeming him extremely dangerous.
Alan Maidment
In July 1999, Alan Maidment beat 72-year-old Paul Carlson to death with a hammer in his Manchester flat. Just nine months after release from a life sentence for murder, Maidment killed again in strikingly similar circumstances: he brutally murdered 47-year-old father-of-one Thomas Jones at his flat in Clifton, Salford. Mr Jones was stabbed 32 times before his body was set on fire in March 2017. Maidment sat on a bench opposite the flat and watched firefighters try to extinguish the flames. Sentencing at Manchester Crown Court, Judge David Stockdale QC told Maidment: "You in my judgement are a highly dangerous man, who poses a real threat to the life of anyone who crosses you or is perceived to have insulted you."
Rahan Arshad
Taxi driver Rahan Arshad used a rounders bat to brutally murder his wife Uzma at their home in Cheadle Hulme, Stockport. He then killed his three young children: Henna (6), Abbas (8), and Adam (11). After cleaning himself up and hiding the weapon, he fled to Thailand. When his crimes came to light, he initially claimed Uzma had committed the murders and he killed her in a rage, telling police: "My beautiful kids. I don't regret killing that f****** bitch but my kids. Killing my kids." He was found guilty of four counts of murder at Manchester Crown Court and received a whole-life order.
John Maden
John Maden lured his 12-year-old niece Tia Rigg to his home in Cheetham Hill on the pretence of babysitting. Instead, he tortured, raped, and murdered her. He acted out his sick fantasies before stabbing and strangling her with a guitar wire. He then calmly dialled 999 and made a chilling confession: "I've just finished killing her now." When asked why, Maden replied, "Because I felt like it." He pleaded guilty to murder on the eve of a Manchester Crown Court trial in 2010. Sentencing him to a whole-life tariff, Mr Justice Keith said: "This is one of those exceptional cases in which the only just punishment requires you to be imprisoned for the rest of your life."
Michael Adebolajo
Middleton soldier Lee Rigby was mowed down by a car then stabbed to death in broad daylight on a south London street in 2013 by radical extremists Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale. Rigby, a father-of-one, was a soldier in the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. The Old Bailey heard that the pair planned to murder a soldier to gain media attention, expecting to be killed and become 'martyrs'. Handing down a whole-life order to Adebolajo, then 29, Mr Justice Sweeney said he was the plot's leader with 'no real prospect of rehabilitation'. Adebowale, 22, received a life sentence with a minimum of 45 years.
Paul O'Hara
Paul O'Hara, from Heywood, was told he would spend the rest of his life behind bars after admitting the brutal murder of his former partner Cherylee Shennan. He pulled out a hammer and launched a vicious attack on Cherylee in front of police officers called to her Rawtenstall home in March 2014 to investigate a domestic violence report. Two years earlier, O'Hara had been released from prison for the 1998 murder of 20-year-old Janine Waterworth. A court heard he stabbed Janine to death in very similar circumstances in an alleyway in Shaw, Oldham, only days after breaking up with her. He ambushed her as she walked to catch a bus to work, just 400 yards from her parents' home.
