Next month, a serial killer who is Britain's longest continuous prison inmate will be up for parole, with a decision to be made over his future.
Patrick Mackay has spent almost 50 years behind bars after confessing to three murders in 1975, and he later retracted his confessions in the cases of eight other unsolved murders.
He had been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 20 years before being eligible for release, but there are other criminals who have received tougher sentences.
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In 1983, the government introduced the 'whole life tariff', which means a person will never be eligible to be released from prison if they have received it.
The sentence has been handed down to some of Britain's most notorious serial killers, including the likes of the Yorkshire Ripper, with the expectation that they would spend the rest of their lives behind bars and die in prison.
Here's a rundown of the notorious British serial killers currently in prison who are expected to die behind bars:
Rose West
Convicted of committing the murders of 10 women and girls with her husband Fred, including her daughter and stepdaughter, Rose West's judge recommended that she never be released.
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While she was initially convicted in 1995, two years later the home secretary Jack Straw ruled that she would never be released.
West is now 69 years of age and has never appealed against the decisions which will see her die behind bars.
Robert Maudsley
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Having killed four people, three of them while he was in prison, Robert Maudsley is the world record holder for the length of time spent in solitary confinement.
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In 1974 he killed the 30-year-old John Farrell before surrendering himself to the police saying he needed psychiatric care and was sent to Broadmoor Hospital, where he killed fellow inmate David Francis.
He was sent to Wakefield Prison, where in 1978 he killed two other inmates on the same day while behind bars.
The 69-year-old will spend the rest of his days in solitary confinement in a bulletproof perspex cell built for him.
Peter Moore
Dubbed 'the man in black', the 76-year-old serial killer murdered four men in 1995, confessing his crimes to the police, but later telling the jury at his trial that a fictional individual called Jason had killed them.
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The judge at his trial said he would urge the home secretary to impose a whole life tariff for Moore.
In 2011, it was revealed that Moore had challenged the legality of his sentence before the European Court of Human Rights, but he is still behind bars.
John Childs
Convicted in 1979 of a series of six contract killings done between 1974 and 1978, John Childs burned the bodies of his victims in the fireplace of his home.
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He killed his victims in various ways, including shooting, stabbing and beating them to death, while among those he killed was the 10-year-old son of one of his targets who had been with his father when Childs lured them to where he planned to murder them.
Jeremy Bamber
Bamber was convicted in October 1986 of the murder of his adoptive parents, along with his adoptive sister and her six-year-old twin sons.
Prosecutors found that Bamber had committed the murders to secure an inheritance and had attempted to pin the blame on his sister, who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, by making it look like a murder-suicide.
His judge said it was 'difficult to foresee Bamber ever being released from prison', and the 62-year-old has not been successful in appealing against his conviction.
Mark Martin
Aided by two accomplices, Mark Martin boasted that he wanted to become Nottingham's first serial killer, and murdered three homeless women between December 2004 and February 2005.
Convicted in 2005, all three were given life sentences, but while Dean Carr received a minimum of 14 years behind bars and John Ashley could not be released for 25 years, Martin was given a whole life tariff.
For his murders the 42-year-old gained the nickname 'The Sneinton Strangler'.
Ian McLoughlin
McLoughlin committed his first killing in 1984 and was convicted of manslaughter, and then committed a murder slightly more than a year since being released from prison for it.
He committed his third killing by stabbing Graham Buck in 2013 after being released on temporary licence.
McLoughlin's life sentence with a minimum of 40 years was quashed and replaced with a whole life tariff.
Now 64 years old, he faces the rest of his life in prison with no chance of being released again.
Joanna Dennehy
Having murdered three men in March 2013, Joanna Dennehy became only the third woman to receive a full life sentence with no chance of release following Myra Hindley and Rose West.
Her judge described her as a 'cruel, calculating, selfish and manipulative serial killer' and her sentencing was delayed until 2014 due to a High Court ruling on the legality of a whole life tariff.
The 40-year-old is also the first woman ever to receive a whole life tariff from a judge.
Stephen Port
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Named 'The Grindr Killer' for the way he used dating apps to lure men into his home before giving them a lethal amount of drugs, Stephen Port was the subject of BBC drama Four Lives starring Stephen Merchant.
Sentenced in 2016, the investigations into the deaths of Port's victims were criticised for mistakes which led police to miss chances to apprehend him sooner.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Cundy said he was 'deeply sorry' for failings in the investigations before the 48-year-old was arrested.
Featured Image Credit: PA Images / World History Archive / Alamy Stock PhotoTopics: UK News, Crime, True Crime