Leading judges have today given a crucial ruling backing the use of whole-life sentences.

A panel of five judges, headed by the Lord Chief Justice Lord Thomas, announced their decision on controversial "life-means-life" orders at the Court of Appeal in London.

The decision follows a successful appeal to the European Court of Human Rights by convicted murdererJeremy Bamber along with Douglas Vinter and Peter Moore.

Last year the trio won a ruling that their whole-life sentences amount to "inhuman and degrading treatment".

Bamber was jailed for life in 1986 for the murders of his parents June and Nevill Bamber, his sister Sheila Caffell and her twin sons, Daniel and Nicholas, six, at White House Farm in Tolleshunt D'Arcy.