HMP Wakefield can be found behind a train station in Yorkshire and it opened way back in 1594 and some sinister inmates and events have taken place there over the centuries – including earlier this year
Britain’s most prolific rapist Reynhard Sinaga was allegedly targeted by vigilantes behind bars.
The attack is said to have happened in July inside HMP Wakefield – often dubbed the ‘Monster Mansion’ because of the sinister reputation of inmates.
Sinaga was there after being convicted of raping 136 young men and a source told The Sun: “Sinaga is arrogant and universally loathed. He is a clear target in prison because of his depraved crimes. He was seconds away from extremely serious harm. He is in danger.”
With this in mind, below we take a closer look inside the prison, and explore why it has such a grim reputation.
HMP Wakefield
It is the country’s toughest maximum security jail and is home to 800 criminals, some of whom have committed the most heinous crimes imaginable.
The Category A men’s prison is located behind a train station in Yorkshire and its origins date back to 1594. In the 20th century it was known for housing IRA prisoners including Frank Stagg, who died there in 1976 after a hunger strike.
Some of the most disturbing killers in British history have lived there, with the most notable being Robert Maudsley, known as Hannibal, who lives in a glass cell in the bowels of the facility.
He was jailed after garrotting John Farrell in March 1974 before murdering three more people in jail.
Two of these murders happened inside HMP Wakefield, where he garrotted and stabbed Salney Darwood before hiding the body under his bed. He later stabbed sex offender William Roberts to death and smashed his head against a wall.
He is now 71 and is kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day in a specially-built underground cell.
Despite the people living there and the eerie incidents over the years, a report in 2022 found the conditions were “good” and prisoners were treated with “respect” by officers.
‘Enamated Evil’
Former prison governor Vanessa Frake told the Daily Star she was on a tour of HMP Wakefield when she encountered her scariest ever inmate.
She said Colin Ireland, one of Britain’s most notorious serial killers after taking the lives of five gay men, “emanated evil”.
Speaking to us, she said: “I was visiting Wakefield Prison doing a tour and his whole persona felt evil to me.
“I don’t know what it was about him, he just emanated evil. I turned around and he was behind me and I literally bumped into him.
“I just thought gosh. I have met a lot of different prisoners in one form or another but he was… maybe it was his physical size because he was a giant of a bloke compared to me.
“I remember his eyes. They were almost pink and they were just these piercing eyes.”
Vanessa, who has dealt with Myra Hindley and Rose West, added: “He said absolutely nothing as if I wasn’t there, as if I was a fly that had just brushed past him. No other prisoner has ever made me feel like that – just him.
“He kind of looked like the pictures you see in the papers. He was just a giant of a man who clearly had no kind of emotion.
“Maybe that was what was so startling about him. He had no emotion at all, there was just nothing there.”
Past inmates
One of the main reasons Wakefield has such a chilling reputation is simply because of the notorious names who have stayed there.
This included Ian Huntley who murdered ten-year-old schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2002.
Charles Bronson was there at a similar time to Huntley and he compared it to “London Zoo” and said he was tempted to “go over and f***ing knock out” the child killer.
Harold Shipman meanwhile was one of Wakefield’s most despised prisoners and was known as Dr Death because he was responsible for more than 200 of them. He was sentenced for 15 murders at the turn of the century but was found hanging in his cell inside HMP Wakefield in January 2004.
Other murderers who have served there include serial killer Levi Bellfield and child killer and rapist Robert Black.
Current inmates
One of the most well-known current lags is Jeremy Bamber who famously massacred his entire family.
He has spent more than 30 years locked up after fatally shooting his adoptive parents and his sister, along with her six-year-old sons in 1985.
Wakefield also houses child molester and serial killer Sidney Cooke – who is now 98-years-old. He was once known as the “UK’s most notorious paedophile” and has had his parole rejected 10 times.
The twisted killer is serving life for a string of sex attacks on two brothers. In 1999 he was ordered to serve at least five years in Wakefield prison and has been behind bars ever since.
He was said to be party of the ‘Dirty Dozen’ gang’ who have been linked to unsolved crimes. And retired detective David Bright said in 2017 he feared children were hidden in graves “around the country” due to the actions of Cooke and others.
He added: “He is an evil, evil man.”