IT really is extraordinary - quite unbelievable: the decision to overturn the whole life sentence on the vicious and calculating killer of a Middlesbrough doctor. He may now apply for release after the 18 years he has served.

If he does so and succeeds, it will underline what we already know - that British justice is now a grotesque joke. Its victims are the victims of crime, their loved ones and the general public. All seemingly count for less than even the most brutal of killers.

For that is what Reg Wilson proved himself to be when he tricked his way into Dr David Birkett's home by posing as a despatch rider and then bludgeoning the skin specialist to death. He had a list of other probable intended victims, a cache of weapons and a plan to lure police officers.

The quashing of his whole life tariff by Mr Justice Tugendhat looks odd since, at the same hearing this same judge upheld the whole life sentence against Arthur Hutchinson, the Hartlepudlian who, in 1983, stabbed to death a solicitor, his wife and daughter, in their home in Sheffield. Though he deserves his punishment, it is hard to see why he is deemed a greater danger than Wilson. Three murders to one, of course, but Wilson had not only shown a resolve to commit more but, even in court, had demonstrated a psychopathic nature. He bawled out: "You might contain me but will never control me."

Perhaps Mr Justice Tugendhat wasn't told a charge of attempting to murder a prison officer while awaiting trial had been allowed to lie on file. Or that one of the original investigating officers believed Wilson's arrest stopped a serial killer in the making. "If he had not been caught he would have killed again," he remarked after Wilson's conviction.

We might also draw a comparison with Jeremy Bamber, who shot his wealthy adoptive parents, his sister and her six-year-old twins in 1985. His whole life tariff was also confirmed by Mr Justice Tugendhat. Quite right - yet most of us would regard Bamber, whose murders were a family affair, as far less likely to pose a future threat to the public than Wilson.

Meanwhile, there is now the spectacle of the Yorkshire Ripper, no less, about to seek freedom by claiming his human rights were breached by the court's failure to set a minimum tariff. This comes after news that David Bieber, who shot PC Ian Broadhurst in Leeds on Boxing Day 2003, is also invoking his human rights to try and overturn a whole life tariff.

Bieber's attempt has proved too much for PC Broadhurst's mother. In a very apt comment directed at the Government she says: "On behalf of the people in this country who work hard, pay their taxes (yes, even in retirement), live an honest and respectful life and bring our family up to do the same - we are weary of being disregarded in favour of those who seek to undermine the foundations of hard work, honesty and pride upon which this country was built. There is an imbalance and it is time it was addressed.'' Brilliantly said. But Gordon Brown's programme, laid out in the mini Queen's Speech last week, offers no evidence that the scales of justice are to be tipped firmly in favour of all decent people.