One of Britain’s most notorious serial killers who tortured five gay men to death in the early 1990s has been found dead in his prison cell, it has been confirmed.

Colin Ireland (57) died around 09:20 Hours on Tuesday February 21 at Wakefield Prison in West Yorkshire, a HMP spokesperson said.

He was staying in the prison’s healthcare centre where he had his own cell.

The spokesperson said: “He is presumed to have died from natural causes; a post-mortem will follow.

"As with all deaths in custody, the independent Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will conduct an investigation."

Ireland was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1993 after he admitted the five murders. He had posed as a gay man in order to seduce his victims in London pubs. He then tortured and murdered them after being taken back to each of their homes.

In May 2007, a report by the independent Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Advisory Group found that the Metropolitan Police inquiry was "hampered" by its lack of knowledge of the London gay scene.

One of his victims, Perry Bradley III, was the 35-year-old son of a US Congressman.

The unemployed drifter killed five people in just over three months, including four in just 15 days, all in 1993.