With Christmas Day approaching, many of us will be gearing up to spend the day with our friends and family, if we’re lucky enough, but for a man dubbed ‘Britain’s Most Dangerous Prisoner’ it’ll be yet another festive season locked away in a subterranean glass cell. Here's his nephew discussing how he found out about his uncle.
Robert Maudsley gained his moniker after being convicted of three murders and one count of manslaughter.
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He killed four people in total, with one taking place in a psychiatric hospital and two others since he was sentenced to life in prison.
Maudsley has been in solitary confinement for longer than any other prison in Britain, and is still considered a danger to the public and other prisoners, which is why some have suggested that he must never be released.
Just last year he asked to be allowed to mingle with the ‘general population’ in prison, but chiefs ruled that it was simply too dangerous.
Instead, the 69-year-old spends 23 hours of every day in a bulletproof glass cell beneath the prison, with only a very spartan set of amenities and just 5.5 by 4.5 metres of space.
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He’ll be locked up in there on Christmas Day - same as every other day – because of his perceived threat to the other prisoners.
Maudsley’s cell was created 10 years after he was sentenced, and it was built specially for him at HMP Wakefield.
Don’t feel too sorry for him, though.
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In a documentary series released earlier this year, Maudsley’s nephew Gavin claimed that his uncle was ‘happy and content’ in his confinement and said that he’d kill again if released.
Reported in the Daily Star last year, an insider said: “He was told no last month but appealed against the decision and wanted to spend Christmas in the presence of other humans. But he’s just been told no for the final time.
“Being alone for that long does something to you.
“He isn’t OK and they cannot take the risk of what he might do.
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“They simply cannot take the risk.”
Maudsley was sent to Broadmoor criminal psychiatric hospital for killing John Farrell in the 1974 after seeing pictures Farrell had made of children that he’d molested, before he and another inmate killed David Francis, also a patient at the hospital.
In 1977, he set out to kill seven people in Wakefield prison, eventually killing two other inmates, Salney Darwood and William Roberts.
In 2000, Maudsley wrote a letter asking the justice system to let him die.
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He wrote: “What purpose is served by keeping me locked up 23 hours a day? Why even bother to feed me and to give me one hour’s exercise a day? Who actually am I a risk to?
“As a consequence of my current treatment and confinement, I feel that all I have to look forward to is indeed psychological breakdown, mental illness and probable suicide.
“Why can’t I have a budgie instead of flies, cockroaches and spiders which I currently have. I promise to love it and not eat it?
“Why can’t I have a television in my cell to see the world and learn? Why can’t I have any music tapes and listen to beautiful classical music?
“If the Prison Service says no then I ask for a simple cyanide capsule which I shall willingly take and the problem of Robert John Maudsley can easily and swiftly be resolved.”
Topics: UK News, Crime, True Crime, Christmas
Tom Wood