Inmate who made hit-list of people to kill and have sex with their corpses jailed for 45 years

A "dangerous" inmate who wrote a chilling hit list of people he wanted to kill and detailed sexual fantasies with their corpses has been jailed for 45 years.

Richard Ford was being held at HMP Nottingham January 2016 when he wrote ten letters threatening to kill prison officers, a fellow inmate, a district judge, a police officer and a former partner, before passing them on to prison officers.

The 38-year-old, already serving a 30-month sentence for possessing a knife when he made the threats, has spent most of the last 14 years in jail after two convictions for indecency offences against men and three convictions of possessing a knife in a public place.

Ford admitted ten charges of making threats to kill at Lincoln Crown Court on Monday (12 December). Judge Michael Heath said while sentencing that the "highly unusual" length of the tariff reflected Ford's fear he would enact his "sadistic urges".

Heath revealed that Ford had expressed a wish to never be released from prison and he was bound to pass a sentence which was not "wholly disproportionate" to the offence which carries a maximum ten-year prison term.

Heath imposed five consecutive nine-year jail terms with a further five sentences of nine years to run concurrently.

"I realise that the overall length of the sentences I am going to pass is highly unusual and may be controversial but I pass them because I deem them to be the only adequate way to protect the public in your case," the BBC quote Heath as saying.

"You are plainly dangerous. You made it clear to a psychiatrist that you still want your victims to believe that you will harm them and also that you wish to harm them. You say you don't feel that you can stop yourself from acting upon your sadistic urges. Those urges are to kill and have sexual intercourse with the corpses of those whom you kill," he added.

"You have made it clear to me that you do not wish to be released from prison. If you are released you think you will get drunk, obtain a weapon and kill. You have made it clear to me that you do not wish to be released from prison."

In mitigation for Ford, Isabelle Wilson said her client did not feel he was safe to be released and that he felt he could get better care in prison.

She told the court: "The thoughts he discusses are concerning but at least he is willing to speak about those thoughts openly".

It was stated during the hearing that Ford had been assessed by psychiatrists but there was no recommendation for him to receive hospital treatment.