People can be sentenced with life in jail for serious offences such as murder, rape or armed robbery.
In England and Wales, life sentences can last until the end of a prisoner's life - but in most cases, after a minimum term, these prisoners will be eligible for early release.
However, some crimes committed carry a whole life sentence, which means there’s no minimum term set by the judge, and the person is never considered for release.
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They are rarely used by judges and often reserved for the most shocking and horrific crimes imaginable.
Convicted criminals handed whole-life orders can expect to live the rest of their lives in prison, although some have had their sentences reduced on appeal or even quashed over the years.
Whole-life orders can either be handed out by the Home Secretary or judges - and there are now believed to be around 75 prisoners currently serving that specific sentence in England and Wales.
Of the 75 surviving whole-lifers understood to still be behind bars in England and Wales, there are a few who are linked to Merseyside in some way.
Some were born and raised here, while others committed their horrific crimes in our region. In some cases, their victims came from Merseyside, while others were sent to Merseyside facilities to serve out their sentences.
These are the men linked to Merseyside who face the rest of their lives behind bars, as well as the crimes which landed them there in the first place.
Robert Maudsley
Liverpool "cannibal" killer Robert Maudsley is spending his prison sentence alone and entombed in an underground glass box.
The murderer, from Toxteth, is believed to be so dangerous that he is no longer allowed to associate with other prisoners or even guards.
According to Mirror Online, Maudsley is held in the deep bowels of Wakefield Prison which is also known as " Monster Mansion ".
Maudsley, who committed his first murder when he was just 21, has been in jail since 1974 and will never be released from custody.
He is expected to die in the tiny see-through room that has been his home for decades.
The cell was constructed specially for Maudsley in 1983 before being dubbed the glass cage as it was so similar to the prison Hannibal Lecter was kept in in Silence of the Lambs.
Peter Moore
Moore, known as 'The Man in Black', killed four men in sexually motivated attacks. Although he admitted the murders to police, at his trial he blamed his fictional lover 'Jason'.
While Moore was from Rhyl, his victims came from across Merseyside and North Wales.
During a terrifying period in the winter of 1995, four men were murdered and mutilated after being targeted by the Nazi-obsessed killer.
Moore's brief reign of terror struck fear in the hearts of Merseyside's gay community, as he chose victims in gay bars and cruising spots before carrying out his sick crimes.
Edward Carthy, a 28-year-old man from Birkenhead, became Moore's second victim in 1955.
Mr Carthy had fallen into drug and drink addiction when he met Moore in a gay bar, before the pair drove to North Wales.
Although Mr Carthy is thought to have been Moore's second victim, his body was the last to be found - with his killer drawing a diagram to help police find where he was buried in dense forest near Ruthin.
Moore was convicted and jailed in 1996.
John Sweeney
One of Merseyside's most horrific killers is serving life in prison for murdering his former girlfriends - cutting their bodies into pieces and dumping them in canals across Europe.
He spent years on the run, evading capture for the attempted murder of another former girlfriend - but when police finally tracked him down they found creepy paintings which included clues to his killings.
Decades after his first gruesome crime, the missing head and hands of his victims have still never been found.
Sweeney's last victim was Paula Fields, a 31-year-old mother from Halewood who was working on the streets of London as a sex worker.
In 2000 Miss Fields was addicted to crack cocaine and her two children were taken into care.
Paula met John Sweeney while he was living in London under an assumed name.
In December 2000 - a decade after the murder of Sweeney's first victim Melissa Halstead - Paula went missing. Her dismembered remains were found two months later in the Regent's Canal.
Paula's body had been cut up into 10 pieces and dumped into the canal in a number of holdalls. Like with Sweeney's first victim, Paula's feet were missing from the body parts found in the water.
Sweeney is now serving a whole life sentence without parole for murdering and dismembering women in England and the Netherlands.
When he was sentenced in 2011, Sweeney refused to leave his prison cell at Belmarsh prison to hear his fate.
Sentencing him, Judge Mr Justice Saunders said only a whole life term was appropriate given the exceptional circumstances.
He said: "These were terrible, wicked crimes. The heads of the victims having been removed, it is impossible to be certain how they were killed. The mutilation of the bodies is a serious aggravating feature of the murders.
"Not only does it reveal the cold-blooded nature of the killer, but it has added greatly to the distress of the families to know that parts of their loved ones have never been recovered."
Mark Fellows
In 2019, Mark Fellows became the latest killer to be handed a whole-life sentence for murdering an underworld "Mr Big" and a mob enforcer.
Fellows, of Warrington but originally from Salford, was found guilty of gunning down father-of-five Mr Massey, 55, outside his home in the Clifron area of Salford in 2015.
He was also found guilty of shooting dead John Kinsella, a friend of Mr Massey's from Liverpool, three years later.
He was handed a whole life order and an appeal against this sentence was rejected in June 2019.
In November 2020, the gangland hitman was handed a second life sentence for his involvement in an attack in the months before he murdered Paul Massey.
Sentencing, judge Sir Peter Openshaw said Fellows is 'obviously' dangerous and handed him another life sentence, which will run alongside the previous sentence he received for the murders of Massey and Kinsella.
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