Just how bestial you have to be to get a real life sentence in this country?

Double murderer Peter Tobin will probably spend the rest of his life in prison. But that's only because he is already 62.

Tobin was already serving a life sentence for the rape and bludgeoning to death of Polish student Angelika Kluk in Glasgow in 2006.

He has now also been found guilty of killing and dismembering the body of schoolgirl Vicky Hamilton seventeen years ago and burying her body in the back garden of a house in Margate, Kent.

On top of this the odd job man had a long history of sexual and violent crimes including sexual attacks on two fourteen year old girls.

Yet despite describing what Tobin had done as "among the most evil and horrific acts that any human could commit" the judge in the latest hearing sentenced him to just 30 years.

Given that Tobin is now condemned to a daily life of centrally heated idleness--at a cost to you and me of around £40,000 a year--it is quite feasible that he could yet totter of out of jail and enjoy the end of his worthless life on benefits.

A man as depraved and loathsome as this should not be given even the slightest glimmer of hope that one day he will be able to walk free.
So just how bestial you have to be to get a real life sentence in this country?

Two men have been give a whole life sentence this year--Steve Wright who murdered five prostitutes in Ipswich and Levi Bellfield, 39, the West London bouncer who was found guilty of two murders and remains the chief suspect in the disappearance of schoolgirl Milly Dowler.

But even counting those two the number of prisoners condemned to actually die behind bars stands at just 37.

As many as ten life sentences are handed down every week in our courts. On average "life" turns out to be just over 10 years.

Now look across the Atlantic. Compared with our three dozen whole lifers the Americans have 30,000.

It was one thing to walk away from the death penalty. Ever since we have been walking away from any real penalty at all.