What prison will look like for crossbow killer Kyle Clifford

Telegraph

12-03-2025

When the whole-life sentence was handed down yesterday, Kyle Clifford was not there to hear it. Clifford, who brutally murdered his ex-girlfriend Louise Hunt, 25, her mother Carol, 61, and her sister Hannah, 28, with a crossbow last year, refused to attend court for his trial or sentencing.
Speaking at Cambridge Crown Court, Mr Justice Bennathan was emphatic: for such horrendous crimes, Clifford would be handed the harshest punishment available under British criminal law.
'For each of these three murders, the sentence will be one of life imprisonment with a whole-life order,' he said. 'That means a sentence from which you will never be released.' So, what will life in prison be like for Clifford, with no hope of parole?
He will be joining Britain's most notorious criminals in serving a whole-life order. There have only been 100 issued since the system was introduced in 1983, although their usage has increased in recent years. The penalty is reserved for the most serious of crimes – while prisoners sentenced to life serve an average of 16.5 years in prison, a whole-life order means Clifford will never be considered for release.
Roughly 70 individuals are currently serving whole-life orders in English or Welsh prisons. They include Ali Harbi Ali, who murdered Conservative MP David Amess in 2021; Jordan McSweeney, who killed law graduate Zara Aleena in 2022; Wayne Couzens, the ex-police officer who kidnapped, raped and killed Sarah Everard in 2021; the serial killer Rosemary West, and, more recently, Lucy Letby, who murdered seven babies at the Countess of Chester hospital and attempted to kill seven more.
In accordance with the severity of his crimes, Clifford will be held in one of the maximum-security Category A prisons designed for the most dangerous offenders, at least initially. 'There are only a limited number of prisons that can house those who have committed crimes of such gravity it must be impossible for them to escape,' says Ian Acheson, a former prison governor and senior adviser at the Counter Extremism Project.
These Category A men's prisons include HMP Belmarsh, in London, where Clifford was held before his trial, and HMP Frankland, in County Durham. 'He has committed a crime so outrageous that escape must be made impossible,' Acheson adds.
A prison worker and criminologist, who prefers to remain anonymous, explains that 'the immediate concerns will be for Clifford's safety – he'll be vulnerable to assault and attack, he might have a price on his head.' His medical condition – after shooting himself with the crossbow he used to attack Louise Hunt, her sister and mother, he is paralysed from the chest down – makes him especially vulnerable.
'Prison officers are going to have their own feelings about him,' she explains, as he is 'very high-profile, particularly newsworthy… [it is] a watershed case.' Usually, she says, 'I would be arguing against over-sentencing. But for Clifford, there is no getting away from the fact that he deserves the sentence he got. Prison officers will be thinking that, too.'
Clifford is a former soldier, although Cambridge Crown Court heard that he spent a third of his three-year military career 'at home claiming to be ill'. This is unlikely to have an impact on his level of risk; according to Ministry of Justice figures from last year, approximately 3.6 per cent of the total prison population are ex-servicemen.
After a period of assessment and observation, Clifford, 26, will be staring down the barrel of a potential 50-plus years – the rest of his life – behind bars. While the serious, sexual and high-profile nature of Clifford's offences means he could be considered at risk from other prisoners, Acheson suggests he is likely to pose a more significant risk to himself.
'He is notorious, and has committed crimes that are absolutely outrageous,' says Acheson. However, compared to the recent high-profile case of Axel Rudakubana, the teenager who murdered three children at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class last year, Clifford's victims were known to him.
According to the unspoken prison code, this puts him a rung above those who killed indiscriminately or who harmed children. And, in the view of some prisoners, his notoriety could actually be an asset. 'He's going to be an immensely challenging security problem – because of his iconic status,' says Acheson. 'In prison, there will be warped people who will be attracted to that status.'
Less than 24 hours before the triple murder, Clifford searched online for podcasts posted by the influencer Andrew Tate, described by the prosecution in court as the 'poster boy' for misogynists. Given Clifford is likely to spend a significant period of time in a high-security setting, or even in solitary confinement, he will not be able to access Tate's content, nor will he be able to socialise with prisoners who may share Tate's views.
Given the hopelessness of his sentence, officers will be monitoring Clifford's risk to himself. Limited research has been done on the population of people serving whole-life sentences, but in Howard Zehr's book, Doing Life: Reflections on Men and Women Serving Life Sentences, one prisoner described life in prison without hope of release as a 'slow, torturous death.'
Some look for another way out. '[Clifford] is a very dark character who obviously has immense psychological problems,' Acheson says. 'It was very clear there is no way out [of prison] for him, so the risk when a whole-life order is handed down is that [the prisoner] will take their own life.'
While his case will never be reviewed by the Parole Board, depending on his behaviour as his sentence progresses, he could be downgraded to a Category B prison in the future.
At some point, Acheson explains, he will be transferred to the 'lifer estate' – one of the prisons which has a high proportion of prisoners serving life sentences. Again, it is unclear where he will go, but one suggestion could be HMP Gartree in Leicestershire. The lower-security Category B prison is home to the largest group of life sentenced prisoners in England and Wales, and previously housed Ian Brady, who committed the Moors murders with his partner Myra Hindley, and serial killer Fred West.
There is no telling how long this will take. 'It depends on the person,' says an anonymous prison worker. 'Someone like Levi Bellfield [the rapist and serial killer] – he's still in Frankland Prison.' According to Acheson, there is no doubt that 'he will have to be held somewhere for many years that's highly secure'.
The biggest practical challenge of all could be keeping Clifford busy, and his severe medical condition will make this especially difficult. Like all prisons, HMP Gartree and other prisons in the 'lifer estate' follow a strict day-to-day schedule. There will be work, education and training programmes which, depending on Clifford's behaviour, physical ability and level of risk, he will be expected to take part in.