'Hannibal the cannibal's' grim life - glass box, concrete bed, 16,500 days alone
An ex-prison officer is calling for 'Britain's most dangerous killer' Robert Maudsley to be removed from his glass dungeon.
The twisted murderer, 70, has been in prison since the age of 21 after he was found guilty of murdering convicted child molester John Farrell, aged 30, in 1974. He then went on to kill three more people behind bars. Last year, Maudsley set a new world record for the most days spent in solitary confinement after more than 16,500 days in isolation.
He is deemed to be so dangerous that he is no longer allowed to associate with other prisoners or even guards, and spends most of his time alone, entombed in a glass box deep in the bowels of the prison. He will never again be a free man and instead remains in the specially-built cell in Wakefield Prison - but not everyone agrees this is right.
His specially-built glass cell is inside Wakefield Prison, where prisoners and guards aren't allowed to associate with him (PA Archive/Press Association Images)A former prison officer who guarded some of the country's most notorious criminals for more than a decade has argued that Maudsley should be taken out of his underground cell. Neil Samworth told the Daily Mail: "I think it's wrong the way he has been treated. He is in total isolation and is not fair. I think his crimes are historic now and he represents no real danger to others. It's a bit like Charlie Bronson. Yes, he has had lots of fights in the past but he is an old man now.'"
The cell, which reportedly measures 18ft by 15ft - slightly bigger than average - has a concrete slab for a bed. It has large bulletproof windows and a table and chair made of compressed cardboard. The lavatory and sink are also bolted to the floor. Maudsley is passed food through a small slot in the steel door which is encased in thick Perspex.
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It is said to bear an uncanny likeness to the cell of cannibal killer Hannibal Lecter, played by Anthony Hopkins in the 1991 film Silence of the Lambs. Maudsley got his 'Hannibal the Cannibal' nickname amid claims he dug a spoon into the brain of one of his victims - an allegation he always denied.
He is allowed one hour of exercise per day while surrounded by six burly guards and is forbidden from having contact with any other prisoners. In a letter more than two decades ago, he penned: "I am left to stagnate, vegetate and to regress", adding: "My life in solitary is one long period of unbroken depression."
Jailed 50 years ago in 1974, he is believed to be Britain's longest-serving prisoner after Moors murderer Ian Brady, who died in 2017 after serving 51 years. But even life behind bars hasn't stopped the violent killer from lashing out, and he has murdered another three men since he has been locked up.
The twisted serial killer murdered three men whilst behind bars, including David Francis, Salney Darwood and William Roberts (Huddersfield Examiner)Maudsley garrotted Farrel in 1974 after he showed him photographs of children he had sexually abused. The murder was so violent police nicknamed the victim "blue" because of the colour of his face. Maudsley was jailed for life with the recommendation that he should never be released.
He was sent to Broadmoor Hospital, which housed some of the country's most dangerous prisoners. For several years, Maudsley kept himself out of trouble, but in 1977 he and fellow prisoner, David Cheeseman, barricaded themselves in a cell with convicted child molester, David Francis. For nine hours, they tortured Francis in the most brutal way.
When the guards finally broke the door down, Francis was dead. Maudsley was then moved to the maximum security Wakefield Prison in Yorkshire, but a year after he killed Francis, his murderous rage returned. On July 29, 1978, he garrotted and stabbed wife killer, Salney Darwood, in his cell and hid the body under the bed.
Maudsley then stalked the prison wing for his next victim and attacked Bill Roberts, who had been jailed for sexually assaulting a seven-year-old girl. He stabbed Roberts to death before hacking at his skull with a makeshift dagger. When Maudsley was certain Roberts was dead, he calmly walked up to a prison guard and told him there would be two less for dinner that night.
Maudsley has previously asked the court to be 'allowed to die' and requested to own a pet budgie that he would 'love and not eat' (BBC)Now deemed too dangerous to remain among the general prison population, work began on constructing a special glass-caged cell for Maudsley in the bowels of Wakefield Prison. By 1983, it was ready. The triple killer once described his cell as "like being buried alive in a coffin".
In the early days of his confinement, he wrote to newspapers campaigning for better treatment. In 2000, he went to court in a bid to be "allowed to die". In a letter, he asked why he couldn't have a pet budgie, promising to love it and "not eat it". And questioning why he couldn't have a TV to "see the world", he ended the letter saying: "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 Mawdsley can easily and swiftly be resolved."
His nephew, Gavin Maudsley, from Liverpool, told Channel 5's Evil Behind Bars that his uncle had accepted his fate. Gavin said: "He's asking to be on his own because he knows what can happen. Put him on a wing surrounded by rapists and paedophiles - I know this because he told us - he was going to kill as many paedophiles as he could. I'm not condoning what he did. He did very bad things. But he didn't kill a child or woman. An innocent person didn't go to work that day and never return home. The people he killed were really bad people."
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A murderer who spent time in the cell next to Maudsley told the programme: "I felt we were being psychologically murdered. The system's treatment of Bob was totally dehumanising. To hold someone in an underground cage for over 40 years. It is unforgivable. What Bob did in terms of murdering sex offenders is obviously wrong. But what the system has done to Bob amounts to psychological torture. There are other ways of dealing with prisoners like Bob."
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