Arthur Hutchinson was on the run from Selby police for rape when he knifed solicitor Basil Laitner, his wife Avril, a doctor, and son Richard in October 1983 at their home in Dore, Sheffield.

Hutchinson, now 67, was jailed a year later and, although the trial judge recommended a minimum term of 18 years, the Home Secretary decided that, in his case, "life means life".

An appeal to get this overturned was thrown out yesterday by a High Court judge, who ruled there was "no reason at all" to disagree with the Home Secretary's decision.

Through his solicitors, Hutch-inson had told Mr Justice Tugendhat the Home Secretary's involvement in setting his minimum jail term, along with the "whole life" tariff, had amounted to a breach of his human rights.

But the judge said: "These were exceptionally serious murders and it is right that the applicant should remain in prison for the rest of his life by way of punishment."

Mr and Mrs Laitner had attended the wedding of their daughter Suzanne to Ivor Wolfe in a Sheffield synagogue. They had held a lavish reception for 200 friends and relatives before Hutchinson broke into their home.

A trial at Durham Crown Court heard he stabbed Richard Laitner with a Bowie knife as he lay in his bed. When Basil Laitner went up to investigate Hutchinson turned the knife on him, leaving him slumped on the staircase.

Hutchinson then found Mrs Laitner cowering in a bedroom. She tried offering money to make him leave, but he killed her too after a long struggle.

"The Fox" boasted of his cunning and claimed the authorities would never catch him. While a fugitive he wrote to and telephoned the Yorkshire Post.

He was eventually seized by police in woods close to his home town of Hartlepool. He denied all the charges he faced.

Hutchinson is one of only a small number of murderers told by the Home Secretary they should never be freed. Another, Jeremy Bamber, was also told by Mr Justice Tugendhat yesterday that he would die behind bars.

Bamber, 47, shot his wealthy adoptive parents, his sister and her six-year-old twin sons at their Essex farmhouse in 1985.

He continues to protest his innocence and had asked for a specific minimum term to be set to give him some hope of parole.