UK’s most harmful prisoner who spends Christmas locked inside underground glass field
Robert Maudsley, known as ‘Hannibal the Cannibal’, has spent 46 years in his own purpose-built cell and has been kept away from other prisoners for almost 17,000 days
Robert Maudsley, the UK’s longest-serving prisoner known as ‘Hannibal the Cannibal’, is marking Christmas in solitary confinement. The 71 year old, who has spent a staggering 46 years in isolation, was first incarcerated in Broadmoor secure hospital in 1974 for the murder of John Farrell.
His notoriety escalated after he killed three fellow inmates, earning him the chilling nickname following a gruesome incident at HMP Wakefield where one victim was found with a makeshift blade in his ear.
His legend grew, and he reportedly once told guards he aimed to kill seven people, ominously warning, “There’ll be two short on the roll call.”
Maudsley’s specially designed cell, likened to that of Dr Hannibal Lecter from ‘The Silence of the Lambs’, underscores the fear he instils even today.
The cell, reportedly 18ft by 15ft – slightly larger than average – features a concrete slab for a bed, large bulletproof windows, and furniture made of compressed cardboard.
The toilet and sink are also secured to the floor. Food is delivered to Maudsley through a small slot in the steel door, which is covered with thick Perspex. Locked up half a century ago in 1974, he’s now considered Britain’s longest-serving inmate since the Moors murderer Ian Brady passed away in 2017 after clocking up 51 years.
Despite a high IQ and love for classical music, poetry, and art – traits that surprise those who meet him, considering his past crimes – Maudsley’s pleas for a less isolated existence have remained unheeded. He even requested a cyanide pill from The Times in a desperate plea for suicide, reports The Mirror.
In 2018, former detective Paul Harrison described Maudsley after a visit, saying: “If you didn’t know him and what he’d done, and you saw him, he’s a really intelligent, clever guy, who made you smile.”
According to a Prison Service spokesperson, while some prisoners may be segregated for safety, they are still entitled to daily outdoor time, visits, calls, legal counsel, and medical attention.
Maudsley strangled Farrell in 1974 following a chilling show-and-tell of photos depicting child abuse. The killing was so savage that coppers ended up nicknaming the victim “blue” due to the discolouration of his face.
Slapped with a life sentence and a stern warning that he should never taste freedom again, Maudsley was carted off to Broadmoor Hospital. For a good few years, he managed to steer clear of trouble, but in 1977, he and another inmate, David Cheeseman, locked themselves in with convicted paedophile David Francis.
When prison officers finally got the door open, Francis was dead. Maudsley was transferred to the high-security fortress of Wakefield Prison in Yorkshire.
But barely a year after the Francis incident, Maudsley strangled and stabbed Salney Darwood, a man who had killed his own wife, and then stashed the corpse under his bunk.
Maudsley then prowled the prison wing for his next victim, targeting Bill Roberts, who was serving time for sexually assaulting a seven year old girl. He stabbed Roberts to death and then hacked at his skull with a makeshift dagger.
By 1983, his new prison cell was ready.
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