RELATIVES of Hobson's victims have told how their lives have been torn apart - and called for the killer to stay in jail for the rest of his life.

The court heard how the twins' father, George Sanderson, had attempted suicide by taking an overdose, and had been turned from a happy, fun-loving man into someone who was reclusive, and "merely existed". He would never be able to work again.

Mr Sanderson said in a statement, read out to the court: "I feel shock and confusion and anger and hatred towards Hobson." He said he did not want him "ever to be released".

One of Joan and James Britton's daughters, Catherine Wilkins, said: "I am very angry towards Hobson, and feel he is a very dangerous man who should be in prison for the rest of his life." Mr Sanderson said that since the day he had found the bodies of Claire and Diane, the scene had been etched on his mind.

"I found my girls robbed of their life and their dignity," he said.

The court heard that he and his wife Jackie were using various medications to treat depression and anxiety and were suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

They had initially been driven apart, but were now coming through it.

The couple later said in a joint statement of the twins: "They were our life, the reason we lived and worked. Now they are gone we have nothing.

"They came into this world together and left it so tragically together."

Describing both as loving girls, always ready to help others, they said that Diane had just found happiness with her first serious boyfriend.

"No-one can ever know how empty we feel without them and we will never ever understand why this terrible thing had to happen to two beautiful loving girls, who were just about to start the best journey of their lives."

Diane's boyfriend, Ian Harrison, said he had undergone six months of counselling, but was still depressed, had nightmares and could not live without alcohol.

"I have her picture in my bedroom," he said. "I talk to her every day. I'm just torn to bits. I can't go to work".

Catherine Wilkins, said in another statement that she believed Hobson should remain in prison for the rest of his life. "Although my parents were elderly, he didn't have the right to say when and how they would die," she said. "Anyone who came into contact with them will remember their kindness and helpful nature. They deserved to live out their lives in a peaceful and quiet way and didn't deserve the horror that came their way that Sunday afternoon."

Neighbours ignored victim's screams

TRAGIC Diane Sanderson's last screams for help as crazed killer Mark Hobson attacked her were ignored by the murderer's neighbours.

As revealed in later editions of last night's Evening Press, Hobson, 35, of New Lane, Selby, finally pleaded guilty to four charges of murder.

At Leeds Crown Court yesterday, he confessed to murdering girlfriend Claire Sanderson, 27, and her twin sister, Diane, along with Strensall pensioners James Britton, 80, and his wife Joan, 82, in York last summer.

Prosecutor Paul Worsley QC told the court that Hobson's neighbours had heard Diane Sanderson screaming for about 15 minutes as he killed her.

One heard a man's voice saying: "I am not going to kill you" as if he was trying to calm her down.

Neighbours however were used to hearing noises from Hobson's flat and didn't realise that a murder was going on right next door.

A pathologist later found evidence of "a macabre and bizarre sexual attack" on Diane.

He gave a long list of Hobson's vicious activities towards the 27-year-old woman.

Diane's partner, Ian Harrison, who Hobson had told the twins were at their parents' house, went to the family home the next morning.

He was shocked when Mr Sanderson, the twins' father, opened the door, because Hobson had told him the father had had a heart attack.

Concerned by what Mr Harrison told him of Hobson's activities the night before, the two went to Hobson's flat. No one answered when they banged on the door and windows, but the flat was unlocked.

"Inside there was a smell of rotting flesh from upstairs. They found the bodies of the twins in the bedroom," said Mr Worsley.

As relatives of his victims wept, the prosecutor told the court that Hobson had struck Claire 17 times on the head with a hammer. He also tied a bin bag round her head that would have killed her if the hammer had not.

He then went to the pub and read a book before returning home.

Hobson later told the police that he talked to the body of his girlfriend as if the attack had never happened.

He called her his "little China doll" and put her in a sleeping bag. He tried to make her comfortable.

The attack left Hobson and the walls of the living room and an armchair covered with blood.

He washed the walls, cleaned up her body and for about a week slept on the sofa in the room where the murder had happened while her body was upstairs.

Mr Worsley said: "The circumstances surrounding these deaths are horrific and chilling."

He then described how Hobson lured 27-year-old Diane to her death in the flat that her parents had paid for as a home for Hobson and her twin sister in Camblesforth, near Selby.

Mr Worsley said that handwritten notes indicated that Hobson planned to lure Diane to the house and to kill her there and may have also planned to kill the twin's parents George and Jackie.

One note said: "Ring Di. Claire poorly. Go Di's. Bring battery charger off George in garage. Jackie in house.

Another note, headed, 2 do list, said: "Use and abuse at will...do Di here...disable all."

Another note appeared to be a shopping list. It said: "big bin liners, tape. Tie wraps. Fly spray."

Mr Worsley said Hobson intended to use the items in dealing with the bodies of Claire and Diane.

Hobson will be sentenced next month.

Updated: 10:32 Tuesday, April 19, 2005