Wicked monk who slit victims throats in chapel was 'UK's first serial killer'

20 November 2023 , 10:15

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Lidwell Chapel in Devon was the scene of horrific crimes around seven centuries ago (Image: David Gearing/Geograph)

One of England’s first ever serial killers was a deranged monk who would listen to confessions by day and toss his murdered victims into wells by night, historians say.

Robert de Middlecote’s reign of terror over Lidwell Chapel in Devon took place seven centuries ago and he has largely been forgotten amongst the other evil murderers of recent times. But the monk’s crimes were no less sinister than modern serial killers and Middlecote was known to catch the attention of passersby with a light in his chapel, where he would poison and rob his unsuspecting victims before finishing the job with a knife and chucking them into a well.

There is no exact record of the number of people brutally killed by the wicked monk - but records do show that he was accused of the "mistreat" - or rape - of a woman called Agnes in the chapel, where he also killed her unborn child and attempted to kill her.

Middlecote was also caught breaking into the house of one Robert Rossel somewhere in Wonford where he stole money, bread, a horn worth a shilling, and three keys worth sixpence. Although there are no specific medieval records to show how many people lost their lives at the hands of Middlecote, history books show the mad monk of Haldon Hill was a real person.

Bishop Grandisson's register for 15th May, 1329 refers to the ‘purgation of Robert de Middlecote’ - an ecclesiastical murder probe that proves he was bad, possibly mad, and certainly dangerous to know. A common thief, rapist and maybe England’s earliest known serial killer, Middlecote was eventually caught when a robbery went wrong, reports Devon Live.

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His end came about when he invited the wrong man for supper. A sailor became suspicious about Middlecote’s motives and only pretended to fall asleep. When the moment came to kill him, the guest overpowered him and threw him into the well instead. The abandoned ruins of Lidwell Chapel, originally called Lady Well, remain today on a dark and brooding hill between Exeter and Teignmouth to serve as a reminder of a brute who may have been one of the first ever serial killers in England.

Paul Greaves