IAN Bates admitted today: "I hope Peter Hall died in agony."

Mr Bates is still struggling to come to terms with the brutal murder of his estranged wife and their two children in September 1998.

He admits he feels no compassion for their killer, Peter Hall, who was found hanged in his prison cell nine months after admitting the vicious murders.

Mr Bates said: "I feel glad he's dead. I really hope he died in agony.

"I would never thought I would hate anybody enough to wish they were dead.

"I did wish that one day I would have been able to get my hands on him.

"It was always in the back of my mind that at some point -- even if he was an old man -- he would one day be released.

"My greatest fear used to be that I would die before him and one day he would be walking the streets a free man again.

"Now I don't have to live my life with that in the back of my mind. You can't let a bloke get away with what he did."

Although it is two years since Hall admitted the vicious killings in court, Mr Bates constantly thinks of his family.

He said: "There's not a single day goes by when I don't think of them all.

"Sometimes I dream I'm with them but wake up and they're not there.

"At the end of the day you can only cry so much.

"There is not much more that can come out of me although there are times when I get emotional.

"There will never be an end to it for me.

"Each day is about getting on with things and putting one foot in front of the other."

Mr Bates was only made aware the Wakefield inquest into Hall's death was due to go ahead this week when a BEN reporter visited his home last weekend.

He criticised the authorities for failing to inform him of the inquest date, despite admitting it would be too upsetting for him to have attended.

He said: "I think I had a right to know."