For some of the UK’s most dangerous criminals, release from prison is simply not an option. While life sentences often come with the possibility of parole, a select few have been sentenced to whole life orders—meaning they will spend the rest of their lives behind bars, with no chance of freedom.
Whole life orders are the harshest sentences the UK judiciary can impose, typically reserved for offenders convicted of exceptionally brutal or multiple murders. These prisoners will spend every holiday, every Christmas, and every day thereafter locked away indefinitely.
Here are some of the infamous criminals currently serving whole life sentences:
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Lucy Letby, a former neonatal nurse from Hereford, was convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others at the Countess of Chester Hospital between 2015 and 2016. She is serving 15 whole life orders.
Bradley Clifford, a former security guard from Enfield, used a crossbow to murder Carol Hunt and her two daughters in their Hertfordshire home in July 2024. He received a whole life order in March 2025.
Christopher Whitelock, from Swansea, bludgeoned his 71-year-old neighbour Wendy Buckney to death in August 2022. Already on licence for a previous murder, he was sentenced to a whole life order in December 2024.
Rose West, who alongside her late husband Fred West, tortured and murdered ten young women and girls between 1973 and 1987, was given a whole life order in November 1995.
Michael Sansom from South London murdered and dismembered Sarah Mayhew while on licence for a prior murder. He confessed and was sentenced to a whole life order in January 2025.
Mark Bridger abducted and murdered five-year-old April Jones in Wales in 2012, receiving a whole life sentence in 2013.
Stephen Port, known as the ‘Grindr Killer,’ drugged, raped, and murdered four men in London between 2014 and 2015, and was given a whole life order in 2016.
Other notorious criminals serving whole life sentences include terrorist Usman Khan, who stabbed multiple people during a 2020 attack, and ex-police officer Wayne Couzens, convicted of kidnapping, raping, and murdering Sarah Everard in 2021.
These cases represent only a fraction of the offenders deemed too dangerous ever to return to society, each condemned to spend every future Christmas behind prison walls.