Toronto serial killer given life in prison for murdering 8

Canadian serial killer Bruce McArthur was sentenced in a trial on Friday to life in prison for murdering eight men from Toronto's gay community, and will not be eligible for parole for 25 years, according to CTV.

McArthur, 67, who pleaded guilty to eight first-degree murders between 2010 and 2017, was arrested in January 2018 by Toronto police.

At a two-day sentencing hearing, Ontario Superior Court Justice John McMahon noted the gruesome nature of McArthur's crimes but he cited McArthur's guilty plea and his age as reasons for his sentencing decision.

McArthur, a 67-year-old landscaper, pleaded guilty last week for killing eight men in Toronto between 2010 and 2017.

Most of the killed, as well as McArthur himself, had deep ties to Toronto's LGBTQ community. Most victims were immigrants and some lived parts of their life in secret because of their sexual orientation.

McArthur sexually assaulted and forcibly confined many of his victims before murdering them.

He dismembered all his victims and buried most of their remains in large planter pots at a home in midtown Toronto where he stored his landscaping equipment. One man's remains were found in a garbage bin buried in a nearby ravine.

McMahon said he had no doubt that McArthur would have continued to kill if he weren't arrested by police last year.

In Canada, first-degree murder leads to automatic life sentence with no parole for 25 years.