A man sits alone in his small, glass cell. Four murders led him to be imprisoned in Wakefield Prison with no chance of ever stepping a foot into the outside world again. For over four decades, he has spent more than half of his life in prison than in freedom. He is Britain’s long-time prisoner: Robert John Maudsley.

Troubled Childhood

Maudsley was born on June 26, 1953 as the fourth of twelve children. When he was just a baby, he was sent to an orphanage with his sister Brenda and his brothers Paul and Kevin. The four siblings were taken into care due to parental neglect. For the next six years, the children were raised by nuns in the Nazareth House orphanage in Crosby, Merseyside. According to Maudsley, the time he spent there made him happy. That would soon change when he and his siblings would return home to find out that their parents had conceived four more children.

That was the time when Maudsley’s suffering from physical abuse would begin. He remembers being locked in a room for six months. Each day, his father would come in to beat him four or six times. Maudsley also accuses his father, George Maudsley, of raping him during this time. Soon after, he was taken away from his family by social services and put into several foster homes. In the 1960s, however, Robert John Maudsley had enough. At the age of sixteen, he moved away by himself. He spent his teenage years in London, where he developed a drug habit. To finance his addiction, he turned to prostitution.

The First Victim & the Ones that Followed After

Robert Maudsley was twenty-one-years old when he committed his first murder. During this time, he worked as a rent boy. On March 14, 1974 John Farrell picked him up in North London for sex. It is said that Farrell showed Maudsley photographs of a young girl he had abused. Upon looking at the photographs, Robert snapped. He strangled Farrell with a garrote to death and watched him turn blue. Then, he hit him over head with a hammer. Afterwards, Maudsley didn’t stay silent. He went to the police and confessed his crime, asking to be put into psychiatric care. Deemed unfit to stand trial, he was sent to Broadmoor hospital for the criminally insane, where he stayed three years in total.

For three years, it appeared that Maudsley was on the road to betterment. Until 1977, where he murdered his second victim, David Francis. Francis was a convicted child molester. When Maudsley and a fellow patient named David Cheeseman (who ironically served a sentence for raping a sixteen-year old girl) heard about Francis’ crime, they joined forces. Together, the two men tortured Francis for over nine hours. Maudsley was charged with manslaughter.

Authorities ruled that he would get a life sentence in prison with a recommendation to never be released into the public again. He was permanently transferred to Wakefield Prison. The murder of David Francis sparked media’s interest and quickly, a false report made it into the news. It was alleged that Maudsley had actually eaten a part of Francis’ brain with a spoon. This rumor was later disproved, but now haven been falsely named “Hannibal the Cannibal”, the moniker would stick with him wherever he would go.

Robert Maudsley’s killing spree really started in Wakefield Prison. In 1978, he had made the plan to kill seven inmated, which led to his third murder of Salney Darwood. Darwood taught Maudsley French and was imprisoned for sexually assaulting and killing his own wife. When invited to Maudsley’s cell, he was strangled with a garrote. To cover up the murder and continue his spree, Maudsley hid his victim’s body under the bed.

When his attempt to lure other inmates into his cell failed, Maudsley took matters into his own hands and actively went searching for another victim. Right after, the fourth murder occured. Maudsley found William Roberts sleeping in his bed. Roberts served sentence for the abuse of a seven-year old girl. Maudsley stabbed him with his shank and bashed his head into the wall until Roberts was dead. The two men had not known each other prior to the murder.

Locked Away in a Glass Cell

After the murders, Wakefield Prison decided to build Maudsley his own cell in the basement. From then on, he would be put into solitary confinement in a glass cell with metal bars. Contact to other inmates was strictly prohibited. Only for one hour a day and under the surveillance of four prison guards, Maudsley was allowed to leave his cell to exercise. The conditions under which he was imprisoned strongly resembled the fictitious story of Hannibal Lecter, a cannibal serial killer who was acknowledged to be too dangerous to roam free. During his time in his glass cell, Maudsley asked to be allowed a pet Budgerigar. Being denied his request, he wished for permission to commit suicide through a cyanide capsule instead. Needless to say, this request was also denied.

Monster or Martyr?

Ever since then, Maudsley has spent the decades in his solitary cell. His case has sparked controversy over time. Some argue that Maudsley could be seen as a martyr, someone who killed “only” the guilty ones, perhaps resulting from his own childhood trauma of having been the victim of abuse. Others matter-of-factly treat his case as another murderer going on a killing spree, not taking excuses for a legitimization of his crimes.

Nowadays, Robert Maudsley is in his seventies and still locked in the solitary glass cell. He will probably never get out and see the light of day again. A fact he knows himself and likely has come to terms with over the years.

Sources:

https://www.crimeandinvestigation.co.uk/shows/making-a-monster/abused-as-a-child-robert-maudsley-killed-abusers-as-an-adult
https://www.10minutemurder.com/blog/the-real-hannibal-robert-maudsley
https://www.thetruecrimedatabase.com/case_file/robert-maudsley