Kyle Clifford should have been dragged to court — who cares if he’s in a wheelchair?

Why was the animal that is allowed to hide away from when the judge was handing him THREE life sentences for the slaughter of his ex-girlfriend, Louise Hunt, her sister Hannah and their mum Carol? Why was this devil in human form allowed to languish in his cell while heartbroken John Hunt, husband of Carol and father to those two beautiful girls, read out a gut wrenching statement where he told Clifford about his broken life and said: “There will be no release for you. The screams of Hell, I can hear them now. The red carpet will come out for you.”

Why was Clifford, now paralysed after trying, unsuccessfully, to kill himself after the murders, not forced to look into the eyes of John Hunt and see his deadened soul, his tortured mind, his emptiness and his broken heart which has been shattered into so many pieces its unlikely he’ll ever be able to put it together again. Why wasn’t John Hunt allowed to make this psychopath understand what he has taken from him?

If I’d had my way I’d have dragged Clifford into court – screaming if need be. Because who cares what he wants, what he feels like. Who cares if he’s in a wheelchair. He put himself there when, like the coward he is, he tried to kill himself after the murders.

This grotesque human being chose to do something that is beyond evil yet he has never properly been made to confront it.

And because of that Clifford has forfeited the right to make choices about anything. So why was he allowed to hide from people who are left of the family he destroyed? Why was he allowed to dodge his moment of reckoning, the moment he was publicly branded the freak and the monster he is.

Mr Justice Joel Bannathan had previously told the court he’d considered forcing Clifford into a room with a video link at Belmarsh but was worried he’d use the opportunity to disrupt proceedings.

I’m sorry but a video link is another a cop-out. And how could Clifford have disrupted proceedings? He’s disabled and in a wheelchair and incapable of hurting anyone. All he can now is scream and shout and rail at the world. And if he did that in court then there should have been guards on strand by to gag him.

And don’t tell me that would be degrading because degradation is the very least Clifford deserves after what he’s done. Those poor women must have felt degraded and terrified when he was brutalising them in the moments before their death.

Poor Louise must have felt degraded when he was raping her right after he’d killed her mother. What Clifford did that terrible day means he is no longer entitled to be treated like a human being or to be afforded their rights or choices. He’s an animal yet he WAS given a choice about whether or not to appear in court.

And he isn’t the only one. Axel Rudakubana, the Southport killer, avoided having to face his victims’ families while being sentenced at Crown Court for repeatedly shouting. He too should have been gagged.

And restrained and forced to stand there and listen to the families of those little girls.

Thomas Cashman, the gunman who killed nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel as he chased a drug dealer didn’t appear in court for sentence.

, who’d murdered seven babies and attempted to kill seven more, was absent from her sentencing.

Jordan McSweeney, who killed law graduate Zara Aleena, 35, as she walked home from a night out in 2022 was excused from appearing in court.

So these big brave killers are tough enough to take lives when no-one is looking yet too cowardly to face the families they have torn apart.

Why does our justice system constantly put the needs of criminals before the needs of their victims? If the family of someone who has been murdered wants the killer in court then that’s where they should be — no argument.

Because if that helps them come to terms with what’s happened that’s all that matters. No-one cares how the killers feel or what they want and it should never be a consideration. And yet in our justice system it is.

Downing Street this week blasted the “cowardly killers who skulk in their cells too afraid to face justice” but said new legislation forcing them to do so will be part of Labour’s Victims, Courts and Public Protection Bill.

Well, it had better be. This must not be more big, grand standing empty talk from Starmer. The Bill says reasonable force can be used to get killers to court if they refuse to come.

To Hell with that — any force necessary should be used to drag brutal killers into court. There should be no hiding place from the grief and anger of their victims.