AN evil killer jailed for life for the murder of a former East Lancashire mother and her two young sons has been found dead in his prison cell, it was revealed today.

Peter Christopher Hall,35, was found hanging from the bars of his cell window with a ligature of bedsheets around his neck.

Hall, of Moss Shaw Way, Radcliffe, was sentenced to three life sentences in March this year for the brutal slaughter of his Brazilian-born girlfriend Celeste Bates, 31, and her children, Daniel, eight, and 17-month-old Milo, at their home in Blackburn Road, Egerton.

Celeste and her son Daniel had lived in Duxbury Street, Whitehall, Darwen, until four years ago.

It was while living in Darwen that she met her husband and Milo's father, philosophy graduate and former soldier Ian Bates.

But after the marriage broke-up she met Hall who later was to strangle, stab and batter Celeste and her children to death as he feared that she was going to leave him for her estranged husband.

The killer then visited a nearby pub - The King William - where on leaving later that night told other drinkers: "You will never forget me. I will be famous tomorrow."

Hall went on the run but he was arrested soon afterwards when he crashed Celeste's car. He admitted the murders in court. Jailing Hall for life at Manchester Crown Court in March Mr Justice Forbes told him: "You brutally destroyed three innocent lives.

"None of your victims had done you the slightest harm.

"No words of mine can hope to express adequately the feelings of horror and revulsion which these dreadful, wicked, crimes evoke."

A spokesman for the Home Office confirmed last night that staff at Wakefield Prison attempted to resuscitate Hall but he was pronounced dead by a doctor in his cell at 6.45am yesterday.

He had been held at Wakefield Prison since October 22 after being transferred there from Manchester.

An inquest will be held into his death, which is also subject to a Prison Service internal inquiry.

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