Dennis Nilsen - Imprisonment

Imprisonment

In January 1993 the Home Office claimed copyright over tapes of prison interviews with Nilsen in the possession of the television programme World In Action. Mr Justice Aldous allowed the footage to be broadcast, a decision that was later upheld in the Court of Appeal.

In 2001, while in Whitemoor Prison, he brought judicial review proceedings over the governor's decision not to allow him access to the gay pornography magazine Vulcan. This application was refused by the single judge at the permission stage. He did not establish that there was any arguable case that a breach of his human rights had occurred, nor that the prison’s rules were discriminatory. He also failed to receive any greater access to such materials as a result.

In 2003 he brought a further judicial review over a decision not to allow him to publish his autobiography, entitled The History of a Drowning Boy. Nilsen is awaiting an appeal on this decision at the European Court of Human Rights.