QUADRUPLE killer Mark Hobson was today caged for the rest of his life.

He was given four life sentences for the brutal murders of twin sisters Claire and Diane Sanderson and pensioners James and Joan Britton.

Today at Leeds Crown Court, Mr Justice Grigson sentenced Hobson to life in prison and gave him a "whole life tariff".

Grieving relatives and loved ones of his victims cried "bastard" and "rot in hell" as the judge delivered his decision.

The judge told him: "You have killed four wholly innocent people and you devastated the lives of those who loved them.

"The damage you have done has been incalculable and the enormity of what you have done is beyond words."

He said that the deaths of Strensall pensioners James and Joan Britton were "chilling" because when he did them he did not have the "twisted sexual desire" which motivated him to kill Claire and Diane Sanderson.

Paul Worsley QC, prosecuting said Hobson should never be released because of the exceptionally high seriousness of the offences.

He said Hobson had pleaded guilty but the evidence against him had been "overwhelming".

"He did not hand himself in to the police, but went on the run, armed with a knife enabling him to carry out further killings," he said.

He said four people had been murdered who at no stage had presented any threat to him.

There had been a substantial degree of pre-meditation with Claire's murder.

Handwritten notes had strongly suggested he was considering further killings.

After Claire's murder he had cold bloodily carried on as if nothing was remiss and remained in the house with her decomposing body. In mitigation, Jeremy Richardson QC said: "The only point I can reasonably and properly make on behalf of the defendant is that he has pleaded guilty."

He said the defendant could have "peddled a preposterous defence" but had chosen not to.

Hobson, 35, of New Lane, Selby, killed his 27-year-old girlfriend, Claire Sanderson, and her twin sister, Diane, in Camblesforth, near Selby, last July.

The court heard last month that he struck Claire on the head 17 times with a hammer and tied a bin bag round her head in their flat, before going off to a pub to read a book. He talked to the body as if the attack had never happened.

He later lured her sister Diane to her death at the flat. Diane's mutilated and sexually assaulted body was found alongside Claire's decomposing body.

Hand-written notes by Hobson indicated he may also have intended killing the girls' parents, George and Jackie.

The court was told that when interviewed by police, Hobson gave no reason or explanation for taking the girls' lives.

The court heard that the Brittons, a frail and defenceless elderly couple, were killed by Hobson in their own home at Strensall, near York.

Mr Britton suffered multiple head injuries and stab wounds to the back and chest, while his wife had been stabbed several times in the back and also suffered severe head injuries. Hobson told police he had no knowledge of the frenzied attack on the couple.

After the killings, he went on the run, sparking a massive manhunt that ended a week later when he was caught at Shipton-by-Beningbrough, near York.

After last month's hearing, police described Hobson as a "cruel and callous killer," who had carried out four brutal and savage killings.

Devoted twins were 'beautiful'

TWO devoted twins, "each with their own personality and beauty", were badly beaten and their bodies stripped naked as Mark Hobson began his killing spree which saw four people murdered.

At their funeral last August, the parents of Claire and Diane Sanderson led about 250 friends and family who gathered in the picturesque village of East Cowick in East Yorkshire, where the girls grew up, to pay their final respects.

George and Jacqueline Sanderson said: "Words cannot express how we feel about the sudden and unexplained deaths of our two beautiful daughters, Claire and Diane." The funeral procession of seven cars left the centre of the village, where Diane lived with her parents, and moved slowly past the primary school they both attended as children.

George, 56, and 54-year-old Jacqueline, walked arm-in-arm to the 150-year-old Holy Trinity Church for the service.

As the mourners entered the church, Dolly Parton's song I Will Always Love You was played.

The archdeacon of Doncaster, the Ven Robert Fitzharris, explained that a CD of the song had been given to Mr Sanderson by Diane as a present.

Updated: 14:33 Friday, May 27, 2005