DAVID MORRIS

Former scrap metal dealer David Morris, from Craig Cefn Parc in the Swansea Valley, South Wales, denied four charges of murder, but was found guilty and given four life sentences.

Morris had bludgeoned to death, Mandy Power, 34, her invalid mother Doris Dawson, 80, and daughters Katie, 10, and Emily, eight, were found battered to death at their home in Kelvin Road, Clydach, on the night of 27th June 1999.

Sentencing him to life imprisonment, the judge his honour Mr Justice McKinnon spoke about the “exceptional savagery” of the killings. He told Morris: “Life should mean life and you should never be released.” It was the second time Morris had been found guilty of the murders. His original conviction at Swansea Crown Court in 2002 was quashed on appeal.

The three-month retrial in August 2006 at Newport Crown Court heard that Morris had been drinking and taking drugs when he went to Mandy’s home and attacked her.  The jury had heard how the massacre at Kelvin Road, began when Mrs Power rejected Morris's advances for sex.

They heard that Mrs Power had begun a lesbian affair with a former policewoman and did not want to sleep with him again. Morris flew into a rage. It is thought  that one of her daughters brought an iron bar to Mandy so she could defend herself. Morris then grabbed it and bludgeoned the mum repeatedly on the head and face, he embarked on what the jury heard described as an "orgy of savagery". Patrick Harrington QC, prosecuting, said Mrs Power alone had been beaten 38 times with the murder weapon.  Doris Dawson was murdered as she lay in bed. One of the children's bodies lay on the landing. Another was found in their bedroom, still in a cowering position. After all four victims were dead, Morris stripped Mandy and violated her body. He then set the house on fire in a bid to cover his tracks. Mr Harrington said it was Wales’s worst ever murders. He added: “It was the worst type of massacre – there was carnage.”

David Morris was caught after a bloodstained gold necklace, ripped from his neck during the murders, was found in the victims house by forensic scientists. Paint found on the jewellery exactly matched paint found on kitchen units at Morris' home.

In police interviews, he insisted the chain did not belong to him - only to later change his story and admit it did. The jury had been told that Mrs Power had spoken about how much Morris frightened her, and had previously been beaten by him. Morris had almost two dozen previous convictions for robbery and violence.

PHILIP HEGGARTY

                               Heggarty (left) Bennett (right)

Heggarty, a salesman, bundled Derek Bennett's body in a rug, put it into a car, and set fire to both in a Cardiff car park. Sentencing Heggarty, the judge His Honour Mr Justice Roderick Evans described him as a "dangerous man". "You are a resourceful and manipulative liar. This was a brutal and very violent killing." The judge told Heggarty he was too dangerous ever to be allowed out.

In July2004 at Swansea Crown Court, the jury heard how the close friends had spent the evening together at a party after drinking in a city pub in April 2003. The court was told details of Heggarty’s history of violence. His previous convictions include attempted murder and several violent robberies in which he targeted elderly people.

CCTV footage showed the friends driving in convoy from the Cardiff International Arena car park - where Mr Bennett had earlier left his car - in the direction of Heggarty's home.

The jury was told Mr Bennett's blood was found inside Heggarty's flat at Clare Road in the Grangetown area of Cardiff, and on clothes he was wearing on the night of the killing. Heggarty's fingerprints were also discovered in the blood on a wall in the cellar of the flat. The court heard that forensic tests had determined that the murder weapon, which has never been found, was a hammer-type object.

Greg Bull QC, prosecuting, said splashes of blood on Heggarty's settee were consistent with the attack having been carried out with the victim lying on it. Mr Bennett may have been "asleep or dozing or with his back to his attacker" at the time, he said.

Firefighters discovered Mr Bennett's remains in the rear of his blazing Renault Laguna in the car park of the Earl Haig British Legion Club in Whitchurch, Cardiff, two days after the murder. The body was so badly burnt, Mr Bennett, who lived with his partner, step children and young son in St Mellons, could only be identified from dental records, the court heard.

During the trial the court was told Mr Bennett was known to have been carrying up to £3,000 in cash and illicit drugs worth about £10,000.

After his arrest, the jury was told Heggarty was found to have paid off £1,500 of debts on the same day as the murder. A cache of drugs was also discovered at his girlfriend's home.

Mr Justice Evans said the recommended starting point of 30 years for a crime like Heggarty's was "inadequate". The judge told Heggarty: "There is no doubt he enjoyed your company that night, drinking, taking drugs and going to an all- night party."Within hours of that coming to an end, you bludgeoned him to death, hitting him about the head with a blunt object, shattering his skull into 23 pieces. He took one and a half hours to die. I have no doubt your motive was robbery."

MARK HOBSON

On the 18th of July, 2004, the bodies of 27-year-old Claire Sanderson and her twin sister Diane were found in a flat in Camblesforth, near Selby, North Yorkshire. Later that day, the bodies of pensioners, James and Joan Britton, were found at their home in Strensall, near York.

Crazed quadruple killer Mark Hobson had arranged a meeting with his former girlfriend Claire, who had split with him because of his violence, on the 10th of July, and, almost as soon as she arrived, he bludgeoned her to death. Home Office pathologist Professor Christopher Milroy found her head had been struck 17 times with a hammer. Hobson had wanted her out of the way because he wanted to begin a relationship with her sister. The fact that Diane despised him didn't seem to bother him much.

After he killed Claire, he repeatedly invited Diane to the flat, and, one week after her sister's death, in the hope that Hobson might tell her where she might be, Diane joined Hobson in Cambleforth.

As soon as she arrived, with Claire's body decomposing nearby, he subjected Diane to a prolonged sexual attack, tortured her, and, when he was done, strangled her to death.

In court, the Judge said that Hobson had an abusive relationship with Claire. He added: "When you tired of her, you transferred your attention to her sister, Diane. As Claire stood in your way, you murdered her. You also determined to lure Diane to your home and kill her there and then to use her for your own sexual gratification... You battered Claire with a hammer in as brutal and callous a way as is possible to imagine before placing a plastic bag over her head and you wrapped her body in a bin bag. On 17 July you succeeded in luring Diane to your home. It is plain at your hands she suffered not only terror and pain but sexual harm before she died."

Hobson went on the run after killing the girls and entered the Brittons' home on the day the girls' bodies were found. The 80-year-old former Spitfire pilot, and his 82-year-old wife, were found beaten and stabbed to death later the same day.

In May 2005 at Leeds Crown Court, The Judge Mr Justice Grigson said: while sentencing the former binman to life imprisonment "The enormity of what you have done is beyond words. The damage you've done is incalculable. You not only destroyed the lives of your victims, but you devastated the lives of those who loved them." 

STEPHEN GRIFFITHS

Monday 24th May 2010, Up to 20 armed police attend the third-floor flat in Holmfield Court, Thornton Road, just outside Bradford city centre, occupied by Stephen Griffiths – “The Crossbow Cannibal”

Tuesday 25th May 2010, The dismembered body of missing prostitute Suzanne Blamires was found in the river Aire in Shipley. Suzanne Blamires was last seen on Friday 21st May, while Ms Armitage, had been missing since Monday 26th April, and Ms Rushworth, disappeared on 22nd June 2009.

Thursday 27th May 2010, After being given extra time to question Griffiths, police approached the CPS, who agreed there was enough evidence to charge Griffiths with three murders. Peter Mann head of the Complex Casework Unit with the CPS in West Yorkshire, made the statement outside Trafalgar House police station in Nelson Street, Bradford, at 5.40pm

Friday 28th May 2010, Griffiths appeared before magistrates in Bradford, when asked to give his name he said "The Crossbow Cannibal". Asked for his address he replied "urmmm... here l guess".

District Judge Mrs Susan Bouch remanded Griffiths in custody to appear at Bradford Crown Court Friday afternoon. 2:15pm. Griffiths appeared at Bradford Crown Court, flanked by 4 security guards. He was asked "Are you Stephen Sean Griffiths", he replied "yes". This was the only time he spoke in the 8 minute hearing. He was remanded in custody to appear via video link on 7th June.

At Leeds Crown court, Griffiths admitted murdering Ms Blamires between 20th May and 25th May; murdering Ms Rushworth between 22nd June, 2009, and 25th May 2010, and murdering Ms Armitage between 25th April and 25th May. Prosecutor Robert Smith QC, told the court, Griffiths told police Ms Blamires - who he knew as "Amber" - was "gone". He added that  the student told officers he had "eaten some of her",  further adding "that's part of the magic". The court was also told Griffiths possessed "disturbing video recordings and images", and there was evidence that Ms Armitage and Ms Rushworth had bled in his flat.

Tuesday 21st December 2010,  at Leeds Crown Court, The Judge His Honour Mr Justice Openshaw told Griffiths that he will spend the rest of his life in prison.

PETER MOORE

Moore ran a theatre and cinema  in North Wales, apparently fixating on Jason Voorhies from the F13 movie series.  He murdered and mutilated 4 men in 1995, the bodies found near small rural towns.Moore's first victim was Henry Roberts, 56, stabbed to death at his home in Anglesey in September 1995. His next victim, Edward Carthy, 28, was stabbed and buried in a forest after meeting Moore in a gay bar. Keith Randles, 49, a traffic safety manager, was similarly killed as he slept in his caravan at road works on the A5 in Anglesey in November 1995.  Mr Randles had begged to know why he was being attacked after Moore dragged him from his caravan and started stabbing him. Moore had replied: "For fun." Moore later told police there was "a certain enjoyment" in the killing. The last man to die was Tony Davies, 40, a married father of two. He was stabbed at a beach near Abergele on the north Wales coast in December 1995.

At his trial, it was claimed that Moore attacked more than 50 other men in what the judge described as "20 years of terror". Moore claimed the killings were carried out by a fictitious homosexual lover named Jason, after the masked murderer from the Friday the 13th horror films.

He received four life sentences but the home secretary later recommended that he should never be released. At Leeds Crown Court on Thursday 27th April 2000, Moore listed property he claimed had been sold by two of his former friends after he was arrested. Chester District Judge Charles Newman awarded Moore £12,842 damages for the loss of the possessions ranging from antique furniture, 900 cinema posters and jewellery to Wellington boots, cans of food and garden gnomes. He was also awarded costs.