Overview
- Maudsley has spent more than 46 years in isolation, making him Britain’s longest‑serving prisoner held in solitary confinement.
- He is confined in a custom two‑cell, glass‑fronted unit built in Wakefield Prison’s basement in 1983, featuring bulletproof windows, fixed furnishings and a Perspex‑screened cage for access.
- In 2000 he wrote to The Times seeking classical music tapes, a television, pictures, toiletries and a budgerigar, warning he would take a cyanide capsule if refused.
- He received a life sentence with a recommendation he never be released after a series of killings beginning with John Farrell in 1974 and continuing with in‑custody murders at Broadmoor and Wakefield.
- Coverage cites his claim that his victims were paedophiles and includes family remarks that he requested separation because he would target sex offenders if housed on normal wings.