It is a not-very-edifying statistic: almost one in every ten killers serving whole life sentences hails from the Bradford district.

Evil Anwar Rosser joined the roll-call of brutal murderers for whom life means life after being sentenced at Bradford Crown Court this week for the murder of four-year-old Riley Turner.

He joins a list of some of the most hated individuals in the country, from the Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe, to the so-called “Crossbow Cannibal,” Stephen Griffiths, who have been told by sentencing judges that they must never be released from prison.

It has, of course, ignited the whole debate about whether life sentences really should mean life – whole life tariffs are rare enough that only 54 prisoners in the UK are serving them, and the more general “life sentences” handed out are nothing of the sort in real terms.

There are, however, some crimes that are so terrible, violent, depraved and disgusting that nothing short of locking the perpetrator away from the general public for the rest of his or her natural life can truly be considered to be justice.

The Telegraph & Argus does not advocate the return of the death penalty, which a significant number of people in this country believe should be the punishment for the very worst offenders. But a clear message must be sent to those who would embark upon such awful crimes that the price they are going to pay is the removal of their liberty forever.

Riley Turner’s mother said that she hopes killer Rosser rots in hell, and it is a sentiment which is difficult to argue against. Rosser’s crime is so abhorrent that, should there ever be any suggestion that he is to be freed from prison, the Telegraph & Argus will be among the very first to join Mrs Smith in demanding that he stays where he is until he dies.