UK’s most dangerous prisoner set to spend another Christmas in cage | United Kingdom | News

A mass murderer once thought to have eaten his victims’ brains will celebrate Christmas this year after 45 years behind bars.

Robert Maudsley, now 71, was convicted of three murders and one count of manslaughter for the killing of a man and three fellow inmates in the 1970s.

In 1978, the killer managed to kill two inmates in one day during a bloody rampage at HMP Wakefield, before calmly informing guards they would have two fewer names for the evening roll call.

Born in Liverpool, Maudsley is considered so dangerous to his fellow inmates that the Liverpool Echo reports that he is confined in a perspex cage similar to that used to detain actor Anthony Hopkins’ character Hannibal Lecter in the film The Silence of the Lambs.

Maudsley’s cell or “dungeon” was reported as “bulletproof”, measuring 18 feet by 15 feet and with a “concrete slab for a bed”. It would also have bulletproof windows and a cardboard table and chair, reports the Liverpool Echo.

He was first jailed for murder in 1974 for strangling child molester John Farrell in Wood Green, London, after the pedophile showed Maudsley photos of children he had sexually assaulted.

In 1977, Maudsley and fellow inmate David Cheeseman barricaded themselves in a cell with another child molester, David Francis, subjecting him to nine hours of torture. This horrific act resulted in Maudsley being convicted of manslaughter and subsequently transferred to HMP Wakefield.

His violent streak continued in 1978 when he strangled and stabbed 46-year-old Salney Darwood before turning his attention to pedophile Bill Roberts, 56. He stabbed Roberts then brutally smashed his head against a wall.

The killer’s notoriety increased after false reports in the press that he had consumed some of the flesh of his detained victims, leading him to be nicknamed “Hannibal the Cannibal” by the press and “The Eater of brain” by the prisoners.

Maudsley once wrote: “The prison authorities consider me a problem, and their solution was to put me in solitary confinement and throw away the key, burying me alive in a concrete coffin.

“It doesn’t matter to them whether I’m crazy or evil. They don’t know the answer and don’t care as long as I stay out of sight and out of mind.”

The murderer unsuccessfully tried to break out of solitary confinement in 2000 and sent letters to The Times requesting a cyanide suicide pill.

He is said to have a high IQ and enjoy classical music, poetry and art, and those who have visited him indoors describe him as gentle, kind and very intelligent.

Former detective Paul Harrison said in 2018 of Maudsley after meeting him: “If you didn’t know him and what he had done, and you saw it, he’s a really smart guy , intelligent, who made you smile. »

American prisoner Albert Woodfox held the world record for solitary confinement at age 43 before his release in 2016.

The Justice Department insisted that “solitary confinement does not exist in our prison system.” A Prison Service spokesperson said: “Some offenders will be isolated if they pose a risk to others.

“They have the right to free outdoor time every day, visits, phone calls and access to legal advice and medical care like everyone else. » The separation of detainees is “reviewed regularly”, added the spokesperson.