A MURDERER who killed a retired Bewdley teacher has been told he will spend the rest of his life behind bars after failing to prove his double life sentence breached his human rights.

The European Court of Justice threw out double murderer Stephen Farrow’s appeal against his punishment at a hearing on Tuesday (January 17).

Homeless Farrow stabbed 77-year-old widow Betty Yates a number of times and battered her with a walking stick in her Bewdley cottage in January 2012.

And just weeks later, Farrow murdered Rev John Suddards in Thornbury, south Gloucestershire.

Farrow, aged 52, claimed the double life sentence, which gave him no chance of parole, was "inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" and in breach of article three of the European Convention on Human Rights.

But judges found there had been no contravention and rejected his bid, meaning he will die in prison.

The decision was welcomed by Justice Secretary Liz Truss: “It is right that those who commit the most heinous crimes spend the rest of their lives behind bars.

“It is also wholly right that judges are able to hand down whole life sentences to the very worst offenders in our society.”

At his trial at Bristol Crown Court Farrow, who was diagnosed as a psychopath, denied the murders of Mr Suddards and Mrs Yates.

But the homeless drifter admitted the clergyman's manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, and a separate burglary.

DNA evidence linked the heavy cannabis user to the murders of Mr Suddards and Mrs Yates, who was found dead at her cottage in Bewdley, Worcestershire, on January 4, having been killed two days earlier.

Mrs Yates's body was found lying in her hallway with her head resting on a cushion. She had been beaten with a walking stick and stabbed four times in the head, with the knife still embedded three inches in her neck.

Mr Suddards and Mrs Yates were both killed just weeks after a burglary at Vine Cottage, near to the vicarage in Thornbury.

Mr Suddards was stabbed seven times and suffered wounds to his shoulder, chest, abdomen and shoulder. He was discovered on the morning of February 14 2012.

A jury found Farrow guilty of both murders at a trial in November 2012 and he was handed two whole-life sentences for the killings.