Fridae

A man convicted of killing 12 young men at two of his London homes has complained through his lawyers in the High Court last week that his human rights are being violated because he is not allowed to receive the gay soft porn magazine of his choice.

The lawyers for the 54-year-old Dennis Nilsen argued that while heterosexual soft porn publications such as Escort and Razzle were widely circulated among other prisoners at Whitemoor top security jail in Cambridgeshire, prison authorities have banned Nilsen's choice of magazines, Vulcan, under prison rules restricting the type of pictorial images permitted.

The complaint came at a hearing in which he won the right to challenge a decision by the prison governor denying him access to a manuscript of his autobiography, Nilsen: History of a Drowning Man, which he wants to edit. The case has been adjourned for the filing of evidence.

Nilsen was jailed for life in 1983 after being convicted of murdering 12 young men since late 1978, although the exact number of his victims is thought to be higher. He is believed to have met his victims in bars before he lured them to his home, where he killed them and then performed sexual acts with some of their bodies.

He was reportedly caught after some body parts he had tried to flush down the toilet clogged the drains. The plumber who discovered the rotting flesh alerted the police.