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Name: |
Robert John Maudsley |
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AKA: |
Hannibal The cannibal |
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D.O.B. |
June
1953 |
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Kill Total: |
4 |
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Kill
date: |
1973
1977
1978
1978
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Kill
Place: |
London & Prison |
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Status: |
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Occupation: |
None |
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Victim: |
John Farrell
name unknown
Salney Darwood
Bill Roberts
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Court: |
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Judge: |
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Prosecution: |
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Defence: |
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FACTFILE
1973,
Maudsley was a rent boy (male prostitute) in 1973, he was picked up by
paedophile John Farrell, who showed Maudsley picture of children
that he had abused , Maudsley reacted badly to this and strangled the
labourer. Maudsley was declared mentally unfit to stand trial and
was sent to Broadmoor.
1976, Three years
later, while in prison he and a fellow prisoner killed a paedophile.
They grabbed the man, locked themselves into a room and tortured and
eventually killed the man. A guard said he fractured the man's
skull like an egg and then ate part of his brain with a spoon ( See below).
Maudsley was convicted of manslaughter for this
crime, having been found fit to stand trial, and sent to Wakefield
prison, he was not happy, and demanded to be retuned to Broadmoor.
1978, he
killed two more convicts, the first was convicted sex offender Salney Darwood, he lured him into his cell strangling, and
then stabbing the man, and hiding the body under his bed. He then went
on the prowl around the prison, eventually grabbing, and stabbing to
death Bill Roberts. He then calmly walked to the Governors office and
told them that the next roll call would be two people short.
Because of his prison killings Maudsley was
placed into solitary confinement, a punishment he described as being
buried alive in a concrete coffin.
Maudsley now lives in a 'glass cage', a two-cell
unit at Wakefield prison that is very like to the one featured in the
film "The Silence of the Lambs". It was built in the basement of
Wakefield prison for Maudsley in 1983, seven years before the film was
released. At around 5.5m by 4.5m, the two cells are slightly larger
than average and have large bullet-proof windows through which inmates
can be observed.
The only furniture is a table and chair, both made of compressed
cardboard. The toilet and sink are bolted to the floor, the bed is a
concrete slab.
A solid steel door opens into a small cage within the cell, encased in
thick Perspex, with a small slot at the bottom through which guards
pass him food and other items. He remains in the cell for 23 hours a
day. During his daily hour of exercise, he is escorted to the yard by
six prison officers. He is not allowed contact with any other inmates.
It is a level of intense isolation to which no other prisoner in the UK has been subjected.
March 2000, Maudsley has written to The
Times newspaper, asking that the prison service give him access to
classical music, a TV, and a pet budgie. He stated that if none of
these could be given, he wanted to be allowed to take his own life with
a cyanide capsule.
One of the Letters to the Times said: "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."
In another letter he asks: "Why can't I have a budgie instead of the
flies and cockroaches and spiders I currently have? I promise to love
it and not eat it."
February 2008 Reported in national press
that Maudsley is close to death, having lost a large amount of weight.
a doctor is visiting him on a regular basis.
Email received by Murder UK :-
I
was a prison officer at Wakefield prison for over 28 years. I was on
duty on the Saturday morning when Maudsley killed Darwood and Roberts.
I then had the dubious honour of supervising Maudsley on a great many
occasions, until I retired in 2005.
For the record(this will burst a lot of bubbles!) Maudsley NEVER ate
anybody's brains. This was a myth that grew up following the manner in
which he killed his second victim in Broadmoor.
In Broadmoor inmates are only allowed to eat with a plastic fork and
spoon, unlike a normal prison where they have a plastic knife. Maudsley
and Cheeseman(the other hostage taker) took an inmate hostage and
barricaded themselves in a cell.
He fashioned a makeshift weapon by snapping the blade of a spoon down
the middle to create a rough pointed weapon. He killed this inmate by
ramming the spoon deep into the victims ear, penetrating the brain.
Needless to say when he pulled it out it was covered in gore, which was
allegedly his brains. None of it was ever eaten.
With regards to the statement about crushing skulls like eggshells,
this was what he did to Darwood, when he swung him round the cell with
a garrotte and smashed his head against the wall.
I realise this blows a
perfectly good myth wide open and will probably never get printed, but
at least you now know the truth. Finally I always addressed him as
Robert when in casual conversation.
Peter Northrop
Maudsley is
on the Home Office list of prisoner who will never be
release and are serving a 'Whole
Life Tariff', see list
here >>
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