Broadmoor’s most brutal lags – from Yorkshire Ripper to real-life Freddy Krueger

Broadmoor – its name has become a byword for housing some of Britain’s most brutal and dangerous criminals.

Now a new four-part documentary series on Channel 5 is set to reveal the secrets of the high-security psychiatric hospital in Berkshire, with a warts-and-all insiders’ account.

Here James Moore reveals a rogues’ gallery of some of the most notorious patients in its history…

The Yorkshire Ripper

Between 1975-1980 lorry driver Peter Sutcliffe preyed on vulnerable women across Northern England, murdering 13 and attacking many others.

He was finally caught in 1981 after being arrested for driving with false number plates.

At his trial Sutcliffe claimed to have “heard voices” which told him to kill prostitutes. Found sane, he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison; however later was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and moved to Broadmoor.

Sutcliffe was allowed to collect other patients’ food orders and while inside the serial killer was attacked by another patient and lost the vision in one eye. He eventually moved to Frankland Prison in County Durham and died aged 74, in 2020.

The East End Gangster

One half of the notorious gangster pair, the Kray Twins, Ronnie is known for shooting rival gang member George Cornell dead in the Blind Beggar pub in 1966.

He was convicted of murder and sentenced to life alongside brother Reggie in 1969. Ronnie was later ­diagnosed as insane and sent to Broadmoor in 1979, where he stayed until his death aged 61 in 1995.

During his time there he was nicknamed The Duke. He always demanded Cumberland sausages for his dinner and even had another patient act as his butler to bring him tea.

Frying Pan Butcher

After 21-year-old shop-owner’s daughter Nisha Sheth was beaten to death with a claw hammer by Peter Bryan in 1993, he was sent to a secure psychiatric unit.

In 2004, after treatment, Bryan was discharged but just hours later he dismembered and cooked pal Brian Cherry, 43. Cops later found his victim’s brains in a frying pan which he said he’d eaten “with butter.”

Then, 10 days after arriving at Broadmoor, Bryan killed fellow patient Richard Loudwell, 59. In 2005 Bryan pleaded guilty to two manslaughters on the grounds of diminished responsibility and, aged 55, is still in Broadmoor.

Real-life Freddy Krueger

Nicknamed the Freddy Krueger Killer, because his crimes were inspired by horror movies like A Nightmare on Elm Street, Daniel Gonzalez went on a killing spree in September 2004.

He murdered four people and injured another two in London and Sussex in September 2004 and stabbed one of his victims Marie Harding, 76, while wearing a hockey mask like Jason Voorhees from the film Friday the 13th.

Awaiting trial at Broadmoor, he tried to take his own life by biting through an artery in his arm. Jailed for life in 2006, he eventually found himself back in Broadmoor where he then succeeded in taking his own life in 2007.

‘Hannibal the Cannibal’

Robert Maudsley was wrongly nicknamed “Hannibal the Cannibal”.

But while he never actually ate his victims, it was alleged Maudsley left a spoon sticking out of the brain of child molester and fellow patient David Francis, who he killed inside Broadmoor in 1977. He’d tortured Francis for nine hours before his death, with the help of another patient.

Maudsley had been sent to the institution after garrotting a man three years earlier.

Later sentenced to life, he was moved to maximum security Wakefield Prison where he killed another two inmates. He’s still there, aged 71, and considered so dangerous that he’s kept in a special glass box, Hannibal Lecter style.

Killed on the Common

In 2008, Robert Napper was convicted of the manslaughter of mum Rachel Nickell on the grounds of diminished responsibility,

He’d stabbed the 23-year-old to death on Wimbledon Common in 1992 in front of her son. Napper eventually admitted the crime after a long search for her killer.

Already convicted of the double murder Samantha Bisset and her daughter Jazmine in 1993, he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and sent to Broadmoor indefinitely. He’s still there, aged 58 with a judge describing him as “a very dangerous man.”

Broadmoor is on Channel 5 from Monday night (Octover 21) at 10pm.