A NOTORIOUS serial killer who was told he would never be released is going to the European Court of Human Rights in the hope his life sentence will be reduced.
Peter Moore, who owned a cinema in Bagillt, was convicted of murder in 1996 after killing four men – including Keith Randles from Chester – for his own sexual gratification.
He was given a ‘whole life’ sentence – handed out to offenders whose crimes are so serious they can never be released.
But now Moore, along with fellow convicted murderers Jeremy Bamber and Douglas Vinter, is taking his case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg.
The three killers claim condemning them to die in jail amounts to ‘inhuman or degrading treatment’, and they are asking for their sentences to be regularly reviewed.
Officials in Strasbourg have agreed to hear their cases, with the Government vowing to ‘fight tooth and nail’ to oppose them.
The Ministry of Justice is now preparing documents for an oral hearing expected in the autumn, with a judgment expected next year.
If the European Court rules in favour of the killers it means they have a chance of being released along with the 38 other inmates – including Moors murderer Ian Brady and Rose West – serving whole life sentences in prisons in England and Wales.
In February 2009 Moore failed in a court challenge to his ‘life means life’ sentence, but his legal team submitted the application to the ECHR in December 2009.
They claim that irreducible sentences breach Articles 3, 5 and 7 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
