A British serial killer who targeted child molesters and rapists, Robert Maudsley has spent over 50 years in prison for his murders — most of which he committed behind bars.
YouTubeRobert Maudsley is believed to be the longest-serving inmate in Britain.
Robert Maudsley committed his first murder in 1974, killing a man who showed him images of child sexual abuse. Maudsley soon turned himself in to the authorities, who sent him to a psychiatric hospital.
There, he and another patient killed a different pedophile — after torturing him for about nine hours — which ultimately landed Maudsley in prison. But Maudsley’s imprisonment didn’t stop him from killing yet another child abuser, along with a man who had raped and murdered his wife.
Since his first murder, Maudsley has spent more than 50 years incarcerated, and it’s now believed that he is the longest-serving prisoner in Britain. Notably, he has spent most of his imprisonment in solitary confinement, as he has also been named Britain’s “most dangerous prisoner.”
For over four decades, he was held in extreme isolation at Wakefield Prison in a specially designed “glass cage” cell. It was only recently that he was transferred to a different prison, HMP Whitemoor, where he is now held in a wing with dozens of other inmates who have personality disorders.
The Troubled Early Life Of Robert Maudsley
YouTubeA young Robert Maudsley.
Robert John Maudsley was born on June 26, 1953, in Liverpool, England. He was the fourth of 12 children and spent his early years at the Nazareth House, a Roman Catholic orphanage in Liverpool, with his older siblings.
Until he was eight years old, Robert rarely saw his parents. But then, his parents decided to take him and his siblings back home, despite the fact that their family had grown to be much larger by that point.
Before long, the children became the target of their parents’ abuse.
As Robert’s brother Paul recalled in an interview with The Guardian: “At the orphanage we had all got on really well. Our parents would come to visit, but they were just strangers. The nuns were our family and we all used to stick together. Then our parents took us home and we were subjected to physical abuse. It was something we’d never experienced before. They just picked on us one by one, gave us a beating and sent us off to our room.”
Robert got the worst of it. He later said, “All I remember of my childhood is the beatings. Once I was locked in a room for six months and my father only opened the door to come in to beat me, four or six times a day.”
Robert’s mother failed to intervene during these brutal beatings and may have even encouraged Robert’s father to continue. Chillingly, Robert also claimed that he faced sexual abuse at the hands of his father.
Eventually, Robert was taken away from the abusive home by social services, which placed him in a number of foster homes. By his late teens, he had become a drifter with an increasingly severe drug addiction.
After relocating to London, Robert began working as a rent boy, or a male sex worker, to pay for his drugs. Severely depressed around this time, he attempted to die by suicide multiple times and told various doctors that he heard voices in his head commanding him to kill his parents.
However, he would soon kill someone else.
A Brutal Series Of Murders, A Brief Stay In A Psychiatric Facility, And Life Imprisonment
In 1974, Robert Maudsley was picked up by a man named John Farrell, who first expressed an interest in paying Maudsley for sex. But then, Farrell showed Maudsley photos of children he had abused. Enraged by the horrific images of the victims, Maudsley strangled the man to death.
Soon after the killing, Maudsley turned himself in to the police. Deemed unfit to stand trial for the murder, Maudsley was sent to Broadmoor Hospital, an infamous psychiatric facility in Crowthorne, Berkshire, England.
Public Domain An illustration of Broadmoor Hospital from 1867.
At Broadmoor Hospital, Robert Maudsley committed his second murder in 1977 with the help of another patient. The murder victim was David Francis, a convicted pedophile. The attack began when Maudsley and his accomplice, David Cheeseman, barricaded themselves in a cell with Francis.
Then, over a period of nine hours, the duo tortured Francis before strangling him. According to a guard who saw the body, the dead man had his head “cracked open like a boiled egg,” his skull had a spoon sticking out of it, and part of his brain was missing — leading to rumors that Maudsley ate it.
Maudsley denied the cannibalism allegations, which were later proven false. However, these disturbing claims weren’t forgotten easily, and they were often the first thing that many people associated with Maudsley.
For the crime of killing Francis, Maudsley was sent to Wakefield Prison, an institution in West Yorkshire nicknamed “Monster Mansion” after the high number of dangerous criminals housed there, including the infamous killer doctor Harold Shipman, who murdered his own patients.
Anders Hanson/FlickrWakefield Prison in West Yorkshire, where Maudsley spent most of his imprisonment.
In 1978, not long after he was moved to Wakefield Prison, Maudsley fatefully decided to murder again. This time, he killed William Roberts, who was imprisoned for trying to rape and strangle a young girl. Maudsley also killed Salney Darwood, who was imprisoned for raping and murdering his wife.
Maudsley then calmly informed guards that they would be “two short” when they did their next roll call. Soon afterward, Darwood was found with his throat cut, and Roberts was found with fatal head injuries.
YouTubeRobert Maudsley hasn’t been photographed in decades, and his most recent pictures are from early in his sentence.
After he was convicted of the double murder, Maudsley was sent back to Wakefield, where he’d be moved into solitary confinement. Since he was expected to be there for the remainder of his life sentence, a specially designed “glass cage” cell was soon built to house him.
The cell measured just 18 feet by 15 feet, and it’s often been compared to the cell that fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter was held in. Maudsley has also been called “Hannibal the Cannibal” and “Brain-Eater” due to the cannibalism allegations made against him, even though they were false.
These names still follow him to this day.
Robert Maudsley’s Life In Solitary Confinement — And Eventual Move To A Different Prison
YouTubeRobert Maudsley’s extreme isolation was controversial, with some insisting it was necessary and others calling it tragic.
For more than four decades, Robert Maudsley experienced extreme isolation in solitary confinement. He was forced to stay in his cell for 23 hours per day, allowed outside only for an hour to exercise while being escorted by six prison officers. Over time, he was eventually allowed small pleasures in his glass cage like books, a music system, and even a PlayStation.
Despite gaining these privileges, Maudsley still craved more social interaction. In one account published by The Guardian, Maudsley stated:
“The prison authorities see me as a problem, and their solution has been to put me into solitary confinement and throw away the key, to bury me alive in a concrete coffin. It does not matter to them whether I am mad or bad. They do not know the answer and they do not care just so long as I am kept out of sight and out of mind.
I am left to stagnate, vegetate and to regress; left to confront my solitary head-on with people who have eyes but don’t see and who have ears but don’t hear, who have mouths but don’t speak. My life in solitary is one long period of unbroken depression.”
Eventually, his family members — including his brothers and his nephew — were allowed to visit him, as well as the occasional journalist.
YouTubeNews crews interviewing Maudsley early on in his sentence.
His extreme isolation proved to be controversial, with authorities insisting it was necessary for his safety and the safety of other prisoners, and with Maudsley’s supporters claiming that he was being mistreated by the prison.
It was only in April 2025 that Maudsley was moved to a new prison, HMP Whitemoor, which is located in March, Cambridgeshire. This move happened just a month after he reportedly went on a hunger strike over the removal of his PlayStation and television in his old cell. In his new prison, he is held in a wing with 70 other prisoners, most of whom have personality disorders.
Loveinia Grace MacKenney, a woman who has corresponded with Maudsley for about five years, has expressed concern about his new living arrangement: “It is a disaster waiting to happen. He does not want to be alongside other men because of the abuse he suffered as a child.”
Maudsley’s nephew Gavin has been especially concerned about the possibility that his uncle could be housed with pedophiles and rapists, as Maudsley reportedly hoped to take out more predators before he was locked up in solitary confinement. Gavin said, “I’m not condoning what he did. But he didn’t kill a child or woman. The people he killed were really bad people.”
After reading about Robert Maudsley, learn about Pedro Rodrigues Filho, the “Brazilian Dexter” who killed murderers and rapists. Then, go inside 11 chilling murders that were inspired by your favorite horror movies.
