Killer's book challenge can proceed

Nilsen: Serving eight life sentences

Serial killer Dennis Nilsen has won a High Court ruling that could bring the publication of his autobiography one step closer.

Mr Justice Elias said Nilsen, 54, could seek a judicial review to challenge a decision not to return the manuscript of his autobiography to him so he could edit it.

Nilsen, who was jailed in 1983 after murdering and dismembering up to 16 young men, has also complained that his human rights were being breached because he was not allowed a gay pornographic magazine in prison.

Nilsen became one of the UK's most notorious serial killers in 1983

Nilsen became one of the UK's most notorious serial killers in 1983.

The governor of Whitemoor top security jail in Cambridgeshire had said the book manuscript, currently in the possession of Nilsen's solicitors, must not be given back to the prisoner until authorities could check it.

The killer, who is serving eight life sentences, wants to release Nilsen: History of a Drowning Man, following the book deal signed by Moors Murderer Ian Brady.

But Nilsen says all proceeds from sales will go to charity and he will not profit from the release.

Prison pornography

Nilsen's counsel Flo Krause said his client was the victim of a "blanket ban" on anything he produced "simply because of who he is".

Nilsen also filed a discrimination complaint against the jail for refusing to let him have the homosexual magazine, Vulcan.

Heterosexual pornographic magazines were widely circulated among prisoners at the jail, said Ms Krause.

But some issues of Vulcan were banned under prison rules restricting the type of images allowed, while others had pages torn out, she added.

The complaint is based on two articles in the European Convention on Human Rights, relating to the freedom to hold to receive information and discrimination.

Confessed

Nilsen became one of the UK's most notorious serial killers when he admitted to strangling 16 gay men, mainly homeless or prostitutes, before flushing body parts own the toilet.

He lured the victims back to his north London flat and sometimes kept their bodies in his flat after killing them.

Nilsen confessed to the murders after human flesh was found to be blocking drains.

When challenged, Nilsen showed detectives body parts and a pair of severed heads he had yet to dispose of.

He was convicted of six murders.