Killer Robert Maudsley has not had a single visit since being moved from Wakefield jail, the prison known as ‘Monster Mansion”, adding to his sense of isolation
He has spent 52 years behind bars and more than 17,000 consecutive days in solitary confinement, setting a new world record for time alone in his cell.
Friends say he has not had a visitor since, adding to his sense of isolation. They warn that the move has in effect denied him visits from loved ones because he is so far away from his native Merseyside.
Robert Maudsley seen in a BBC documentary around 40 years ago(Image: BBC)
A relative said: “His brothers used to visit him, but they are in poor health now and it will be hard for them to get to the new prison. It was complicated visiting Robert, with forms and meeting the police.”
His partner Loveinia Grace MacKenney, 71, a mum-of-one who lives in London, has also been unable to see him. It is more than a year since his last visit,” she said. “I speak to him every week on the phone but it is not right.”
In an interview last year, Maudsley’s brother Kevin, 71, told how he used to visit him once a month In Wakefield, and sat in an adjoining cell, speaking to him through metal bars.
Robert Maudsley, 72, is in limbo, hundreds of miles from his family(Image: Unknown)
He said: ‘He’d rather be on his own than in the normal prison. He just likes it. We just talk about things like outside – what’s it like, what’s going on, things like that.’
He described how Maudsley played chess against himself, in order to pass the time.
He also liked to read about the game, and is said to enjoy listening to classical music, including Schubert, in his cell.
Other inmates claimed that they would see him ‘shuffling’ around when he did get out for exercise in Wakefield, and was not the dangerous, violent man that he was before.
Robert Maudsley and his partner Loveinia MacKenney(Image: Mirrorpix)
But last year prison chiefs that he was being transferred ‘against his wishes’.
“We do however find ourselves in a difficult situation with regard to the growing population, and the available accommodation,” they wrote in a memo. “As you will be aware, there have been a number of violent incidents in the segregation unit at HMP Wakefield. This means identifying a number of men to transfer….it is now an appropriate time to facilitate a transfer for yourself to another unit.”
It triggered a row about his privileges; Maudsley also went on hunger strike. Now he only buys food from the prison shop in Whitemoor.
Another internal report from the authorities there confirmed that he is refusing to interact or “engage in conversation” with staff.
Maudsley complains that his treatment was “far more restrictive, oppressive and punitive” than it had been in Wakefield. There were special measures in place for Wakefield prison staff due to his record of violence.
Maudsley was sentenced to life in 1974 for the manslaughter of John Farrell, a 30-year-old child abuser. He then killed three men behind bars.
After killing his last two victims, he was said to have told a prison guard: “There’ll be two short on the roll call.”
He earned his ‘Hannibal the Cannibal’ nickname after one victim was found with a spoon in his skull, leading to rumours – later proven false – that he had eaten the man’s brains.
Maudsley had decades at Wakefield, with special measures in place so prison staff could see him before they entered his cell. Due to the Perspex window on his cell, he has been compared to the fictional character Hannibal Lecter, played by Anthony Hopkins in the hit 1991 movie ‘The Silence of the Lambs’.
In his letters to Loveinia, Maudsley has shown his tender side, and told her: “All the kindness, thoughtfulness and love you have shared with me through these last short years can get me through anything.” He added: “My beautiful Loveinia, the more love we experience in our lives, the more the bad experiences tend to fade into the distance and we can live our lives to the full. “Thank you for being there for me, and for giving me so many beautiful and wonderful dreams; I hope I have done the same for you when you think of me.”
The Ministry of Justice declined to comment on individual prisoners.
A source stressed that Maudsley has access to a phone, and half an hour outside for exercise, and taking a shower, every day.
