Quadruple killer Mark Hobson will have to wait to find out if he must face the rest of his life behind bars after launching a sentence challenge today.

The former binman, who admitted murdering his girlfriend, her twin sister and a frail elderly couple, is currently the subject of a "whole life tariff", which means he will never be released from jail.

At the Court of Appeal in London yesterday, Hobson's QC Jeremy Richardson argued that he should have been given some credit for his guilty pleas in the setting of a tariff.

After hearing legal argument, Lord Chief Justice Lord Phillips, sitting with two other senior judges, announced that they will give their ruling at a later date.

The judges heard a number of cases relating to minimum terms set in other murder cases. A defendant must serve a minimum term before being considered for parole.

Lord Phillips said the court would give its judgement in the cases together, including that of Hobson, in "due course".

Hobson, 36, admitted the murder of his girlfriend Claire Sanderson, 27, and her sister Diane at his flat in Camblesforth, North Yorkshire, and also killing pensioners Joan and James Britton at their home near York.

At Leeds Crown Court in May the judge hearing the case, Mr Justice Grigson, sentenced Hobson to life in prison and gave him a whole life tariff.

His case set a legal precedent because such a tariff had never previously been imposed on someone who had pleaded guilty.