Britain’s most enduring inmate has been allowed access to a phone in his cell, but it is improbable that he will return to the prison cell known as ‘Monster Mansion.’ Robert Maudsley, aged 72, staged a hunger strike earlier this year following the confiscation of his PlayStation, TV, and other privileges.
The convicted quadruple murderer, once deemed the most hazardous prisoner in the system, was relocated from his custom-made cell in Wakefield prison, West Yorkshire. In March, he was transferred 125 miles away to HMP Whitemoor in Cambridgeshire, where he was housed in a unit tailored for inmates with personality disorders.
Concerns were raised by friends over the treatment Maudsley received following an assault on staff by Manchester bomber Hashem Abedi at Durham’s Frankland prison. His long-time girlfriend and pen pal, Loveinia MacKenney, expressed worries about his well-being.
Having been isolated from the general prison population in Wakefield for years due to his violent history, Maudsley was monitored through a perspex window in his cell. His prolonged seclusion has left him particularly susceptible to infections, having spent nearly 47 years in solitary confinement.
Although a return to Wakefield seems unlikely, Maudsley has been reunited with his personal effects, including books and music, and now has a phone in his cell. He is also granted half an hour of outdoor exercise daily, which is considered crucial for his well-being after decades of incarceration.
Maudsley’s nephew, Gavin Maudsley, revealed that his uncle struggled with the abrupt change from Wakefield to Whitemoor, where his daily routine includes just an hour out of his cell for various activities. Christmas marked his 51st consecutive year behind bars, having been imprisoned in 1974 for the murder of John Farrell, a child abuser. Throughout his incarceration, he has claimed the lives of three individuals he believed to be sex offenders.
Following the deaths of his last two victims, Maudsley reportedly remarked to a prison guard, “There’ll be two short on the roll call.” From 1983 until this year, he spent 23 hours a day in a glass cell in Wakefield, describing it as akin to “being buried alive in a coffin.” After the demise of Moors murderer Ian Brady in 2017, Maudsley became the United Kingdom’s longest-serving prisoner.
