The crimes of Stephen Griffiths – the ‘Crossbow Cannibal’ – are so vile and so depraved that they almost defy belief.

He killed without mercy because he wanted to and because he could – then turned his bathroom into a vision of hell as he dismembered his victims before coldly disposing of their remains.

They were the actions of evil made real.

It is impossible to verify whether his claim that he ate parts from all three of his victims is true or false, part of a twisted bid to achieve infamy.

But if a desire to go down in history was his ultimate aim – and at least one expert claims that is so – then he has achieved it. The sheer horror of his deeds has assured him of that.

But it is an empty form of immortality – engendering only contempt and revulsion. He has nothing to offer us.

In contrast, the women he murdered so brutally and so callously will be remembered with love and tenderness.

Suzanne Blamires, Shelley Armitage and Susan Rushworth did not have the easiest of lives and they chose to walk some troubled pathways, but they were still cherished.

And if lives can be measured at all, it is in such things.