A prison psychiatrist who treated one of Britain's most dangerous inmates has called for his release from jail, while sharing an unusual suggestion about how he could instead atone for his crimes.
Robert Maudsley holds the unenviable world record for the most consecutive days in solitary confinement, and is one of the longest-serving prisoners in the UK's penal system, after being locked up five decades ago.
He is currently serving a life sentence in the bowels of HMP Wakefield - often referred to as 'Monster Mansion' due to the large number of high-profile and high-risk offenders held there - in a custom-built glass cell.
Time in prison
Maudsley has spent 23 hours a day in the 18ft by 14ft underground box in the basement since 1983, and is accompanied by four prison officers whenever he is allowed out for brief periods.
The killer - who has murdered four people in total, three of which occurred in prison - described it as a 'concrete coffin' in a letter to prison authorities, pleading to be moved into better conditions over 20 years ago.
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He wrote: "It does not matter to them whether I am mad or bad. They do not know the answer and they do not care just so long as I am kept out of sight and out of mind.
"I am left to stagnate, vegetate and to regress; left to confront my solitary head-on with people who have eyes but don't see and who have ears but don't hear, who have mouths but don't speak.
"My life in solitary is one long period of unbroken depression."
Maudsley's past
Maudsley had a turbulent childhood growing up in Liverpool and was taken into care along with his two brothers and sister, after it was found they were victims of 'parental neglect', before they were later returned to the family home.
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His brother, Kevin, claimed that they suffered severe physical abuse throughout this period, while the killer himself claimed during his last murder trial in 1979 that he imagined his victims were his mother and father.
Maudsley moved to London in 1974 and became a sex worker to make ends meet, where he was then picked up by John Farrell in 1974 - who showed him evidence of child abuse he had committed.
He killed Farrell before surrendering himself to police, saying he needed psychiatric care and was later sent to Broadmoor Hospital after being found unfit to stand trial.
Other crimes committed
Three years later, Maudsley and another prisoner tortured and killed child molester, David Francis, in Broadmoor Hospital.
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He then killed two inmates at HMP Wakefield when he was sent there.
Maudsley has since been serving life imprisonment, with the recommendation that he never be released.
Dr Johnson's thoughts on his release
But according to a prison psychiatrist who worked with the now 70-year-old killer, he should be freed from prison so that he can make use of his 'good brain' and earn money, which he could pay to his victims families as compensation.
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Dr Bob Johnson, who believes past trauma is the common denominator with violent prisoners, told Shaun Attwood's True Crime Podcast that it is 'ridiculous' that Maudsley - who loves classical music, poetry and art - is still behind bars.
He explained: "Robert Maudsley is a very cultured man, he likes Schubert [Austrian composer Franz Schubert] like I do.
"He’s a very intelligent man. One of the things I say about Maudsley is, 'You have murdered somebody, you must pay'.
"But I would employ Maudsley with a very high salary, because he’s got a good brain, and he should pay £10,000 a year to each family he has deprived a member of.
"Not lock him up at the costing the state £500k a year, it’s ludicrous, he needs to pay compensation for what he’s done.
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"I’m sure if I’d been able to continue, he would have done that."
Johnson's time with Maudsley
Dr Johnson said he first met the inmate in 1991 on the hospital wing at HMP Parkhurst, before gaining permission to interview Maudsley and try to help him with therapy.
He said the inmate had made 'sterling progress' during their time together as they 'unpacked his appalling childhood'.
The psychiatrist believes that violent prisoners like Maudsley were 'born loveable' but suffered intense trauma, which they don't know how to deal with, resulting in them committing crimes later in life.
For now, the pensioner will remain in his subterranean Perspex cell kitted out with compressed cardboard furniture, reading books and playing chess against himself.
Topics: Crime, True Crime, UK News, Mental Health
Olivia Burke