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Updated November 21st, 2021 at 12:14 IST

Britain's 'most dangerous' prisoner spends 23 hours daily in bulletproof glass prison

Britain's Wakefield Prison constructed a special glass enclosure for Robert Maudsley which contains a concrete slab for him to sleep on, a table, and a chair.

Reported by: Zaini Majeed
Britain
Image: AP | Image:self
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Britain’s most notorious criminal, nicknamed the 'Hannibal Lecter' of Liverpool, Robert Maudsley, who is deemed too dangerous to be allowed to mix with prisoners and guards is set to die in an underground glass box in Wakefield prison, where he spends over 23 hours a day, the British press reported.

Maudsley, considered one of the most notorious criminals in Britain’s history, was the fourth of 12 children. He reportedly spent his early years in a Catholic orphanage and was a victim of violent abuse inflicted by his father and mother, when he was later rehomed. Maudsley, according to various accounts quoted by media sources, took extra beatings to protect his siblings as he was victimised. 

Locked up in a glass box for over 4 decades

Maudsley became famous for brutal and deadly attacks on child molesters which earned him names such as 'Hannibal, the Cannibal'. The now 68-year-old has been locked up since the year 1974 and has spent close to 40 years living in a 5.5 by 4.5-metre bulletproof glass box, according to UK outlet Liverpool Echo.

Wakefield Prison has constructed a special glass enclosure for Liverpool's ‘Hannibal Lecter’ which contains a concrete slab for him to sleep on. The glass box has a table and chair made of compressed cardboard, a toilet, and a sink. Maudsley, who as a child, lived at Nazareth House had, at the age of 8, spent six months locked in a room where his father chided and beat him mercilessly, Liverpool Echo reported. He committed the first murder when he was 21, and got into drug abuse and sex work for money. 

Court ruled Maudsley 'unhealthy and unfit' to stand trial

In 1974, he mauled his client John Farrell to death after the latter showed him photographs of children he had abused. A court had then declared him unhealthy and unfit to even stand trial for the crimes and asked law enforcement to lock him up and never release him.

He was first kept at Broadmoor Hospital, a facility that has housed some of the most dangerous criminals in the UK. He and another cell inmate David Cheeseman committed a crime by barricading themselves inside a room, where they tied up child molester David Francis and later hung his body for the prison guards to see, UK-based Express reported. 

Maudsley was then charged with manslaughter and shifted to Wakefield Prison in Yorkshire where he attacked two more victims. He stabbed Salney Darwood, a 46-year-old for murdering his wife on 29 July 1978, hid his body under the bed and then pursued Bill Roberts, a 56-year-old, convicted for sexually abusing a seven-year-old girl. He smashed the victim’s head against the wall and attacked him with a makeshift dagger and hacked his skull. 

Killer remembered his 'parents' at the time of committing brutal crimes

At his final trial in 1979, Maudsley told the court that he remembered his parents at the time of crimes and had wished that he could kill them. Robert Maudsley's older brother Paul told LancLive said he always feared that he could “easily have turned out like Bob but was lucky."

"I ended up with someone who loved me and showed me affection. Kevin, who now lives in Bradford, was the same. We're both married with four kids,” he said adding that for the British criminal, “the chain of abuse was never broken; he's been abused all his life.”

At the Parkhurst Prison on the Isle of Wight in the 1990s, Maudsley met with psychiatrist Dr Bob Johnson who had said that Maudsley was making progress but when the sessions were stopped after three years he was returned to Wakefield Prison. In 2000, he made a request to the courts to allow him to die. 

"What purpose is served by keeping me locked up 23 hours a day? Why even bother to feed me and to give me one hour’s exercise a day? Who actually am I a risk to?” His letter to the court, cited by LancsLive, read. 

"As a consequence of my current treatment and confinement, I feel that all I have to look forward to is indeed psychological breakdown, mental illness and probable suicide," he added.

'All alone now': Maudsley in a letter to his psychiatrist 

He had also written a letter to Dr Johnson who had attempted to contact him. His letter had a three-word message that read: "All alone now." 

A petition was filed on Change.Org for providing better conditions for Robert Maudsley in Wakefield Prison, who Britons asserted has been a victim of physical torture, abuse, and mental illness.

"Robert Maudsley is caged up like an animal and has barely any human rights in prison. He had a terrible childhood which was the trigger for his crimes, which were only taking out rapists and paedophiles, which the government should be doing anyway," the petition read asking people to sign for Maudley to get him better conditions in his jail cell.

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Published November 21st, 2021 at 12:14 IST

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