A TRIPLE killer has lost his final attempt to escape spending the rest of his life behind bars – in a ruling that gives UK courts the power to continue imposing whole-life tariffs.

Arthur Hutchinson, originally from Hartlepool, had claimed his punishment amounted to inhuman and degrading treatment, as he had no hope of release.

But judges at the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights concluded by 14 votes to three that whole-life terms were compatible with article three of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Hutchinson - who bragged that he was called “The Fox” because of his cunning – was jailed in 1984 for stabbing Basil and Avril Laitner to death and then killing their son, Richard, after breaking into the couple’s Sheffield home.

The Laitners had hosted their daughter Suzanne’s wedding reception at their home hours before Hutchinson broke in.

The judge in his original trial ruled that he should serve a minimum of 18 years but then-home secretary Leon Brittan later determined he should face the whole-life tariff.

In 2008, Hutchinson had a domestic appeal against whole-life tariffs dismissed by the Court of Appeal.

Then in 2015 the European Court of Human Rights threw out his case, but he applied for it to be passed to the Strasbourg court’s Grand Chamber.

The ruling on Tuesday follows a protracted legal saga over the issue of “life means life” prison terms, under which there is no minimum term and the individual is never considered for release.

In 2013 human rights judges found the power to release a whole life prisoner was unclear in a judgment that raised questions about the sentences.

But in a later ruling on Hutchinson’s case, the ECHR found there had been no violation, saying doubts concerning the release power had been addressed.

Justice Secretary Liz Truss said: “It is right that those who commit the most heinous crimes spend the rest of their lives behind bars.

“It is also wholly right that judges are able to hand down whole-life sentences to the very worst offenders in our society.”

There are 63 inmates serving whole-life sentences, including some of the country’s most notorious criminals, such as one-eyed police killer Dale Cregan and Moors murderer Ian Brady.

Britain’s “whole-lifers” include Moors murderer Ian Brady, Rosemary West, Mark Bridger, who killed five-year-old April Jones, and one-eyed police killer Dale Cregan, who lured PCs Nicola Hughes and Fiona Bone to their deaths.