Decades of Solitary Confinement

Hello there Welcome to Murder Most British. I'm Zach Hey, welcome. I'm Rachel Hey, how you doing? A doing good? Everyone having a good day? Yeah, I'm good Q quite energetic, I feel today. Youre pretty jazzed? Yeah, pretty jazz. Yeah, have you've been looking forward to this one? I have really been looking forward to this one. It's a c it is one of the craziest ones we've done so far, I think J just how much this guy has gone through Yeah has been like reading about it and writing it and everything was I think in this case, I think why I'm looking for or have been looking forward to it is actually I I feel for the guy U from his, you know, the childhood, you know, up until it just he never got I N never got a chance. No, definitely. Yeah. And despite, you know the events that he did, the acts that he did, I still have you know, I feel sad for him. Yeah, it's rare to feel bad for the villain the story. you know what I mean? Like that That's what you're supposed to know like a weird, you know, you're in conflict with yourself because you know that you shouldn't feel sorry for this guy because of acts that he done But I think because which you'll find out as we go through the case that You know, sometimes childhood, things that happen into your childhood are that grows goes with you through into adulthood. Yeah can be can really shape who you are and Yeah, so I do have a soft spot for this guy. Obviously I don't condone any acts that he did U but Yeah, I do feel a little bit bad for the guy. Yeah, many we've got many quotes, which is crazy because usually you don't really get a whole lot from T back guys that don't do stuff. guys and girls, sorry Um, You know, usually they stay quiet and they don't really say much or whatever. Plenty plenty to So before we begin A small request from us If you enjoy listening to our true crime stories Please give us a like, a follow, and a five star rating would actually be really grateful for that It also helps us like with the algorithm Also, you can follow us on Instagram, TikTok at Modermost British and on Facebook at MMB podcast. You can also join us in the public crypt chat, our free disiscord channel, where you can talk about the cases, share theories, and read the latest news from the archive Pus messages Let us know what you think about the cases. Your support really helps the archive grow and ensures that no story is ever forgotten. Now there's just a little warning. This episode includes discussion on child abuse, sexual violence, extreme physical violence and murder well as long term institutional confinement Some listeners may find this material distressing So listener discretion is strongly advised to the story. But in the early hours of a northern city, a door closed and did not reopen. Inside, life ran on routine rather than comfort Bells marked the day. Peys replaced conversation Movement was counted, timed and watched Choice narrowed to whatever the schedule allowed At the center of it all was a young man who had spent most of his life inside places like this pllaces where strangers set the rules and doors locked from the outside By the time he reached prison, the pattern wasn't new He had already passed through orphanages run by nuns, anonymous London rooms, rented by the Kight psychiatric wards and long institutional corridors where silence lasted longer than anything else Robert John Maudsley was born on the twenty sixth of june nineteen fifty three in Liverpool The fourth of what would eventually become twelve children in the household, already struggling to cope D that's a lot of kids. Yeah My greatnd my grandfather was one of nineteen. Good Godd. I think back in those days they did It was a yearly routine had a child. Yeah, just Oh, having another one. Yp. Every year, baby. Obviously I changed it, you know, I've only stuck with one, so I don't think I could cook twelve. Like nineteen Jesus. Madness, isn't it? That's a little army Well, before he reaches his second birthday, social services intervene. Robber and three older siblings are removed after being found to be suffering neglect by their parents They are placed at Nazareth House, a Roman Catholic orphanage run by nuns on Merseyside is the first major rupture in his life onene that happens before he can really understand what's happening Or why At Nazareiff House, life runs on routine, meals, schooling, prayers, and the repetition of days that don't ask children to explain themselves Years later, Robert's older brother Paul would describe those early years in care as the only period of stability they ever really knew point in The orphanage we had all got on really well parents would come to visit, but they were just strangers The nuns were our family and we all used to stick together Safety in their story comes from structure I think it It was it was de. Good in a sense you know, like You never really want to separate They're being neglected in that and and they get a good structure. They have people looking after them, they're fed, they're, you know, everything. getting schooling Yeah, I think obviously what with twelve children in the household some children obviously would would be neglected because, you know, there's so many. I mean, I've I've got one child and a fostered child and well, kind of Almost adults now, but you know, Trying to give one Eough sort of attention and everything. does get too much sometimes and just imagine trying to take care of twelve kids and giving them every each of them everything that they need. Um, you know, emotional support, things like that It's going be a lot hectic, chaos Well, after most of their early childhood and care, the first four children are returned home Every account of what followed describes the change as immediate Paul remembered it as plainly It was just the old fella who hid us with his fists belt. and sometimes a stick But Arma instigated half of it. Beatings became routine. Doors close When children are sent to their rooms, the predictability of the orphanage vanishes Repplaced by a home where punishment is constant and violence is the norm Not a great place to grow up in. No For Robert, the abuse appears to have been worse. Decades later, he reduced his childhood to a single sentence All I remember of my childhood is the beatons He described prolonged confinement as punishment. Not hours or days, but months 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 He remembered the implements too, sticks, rods, even a twenty two air rifle broken across his back. It wasn't episodic, it was sustained abuse Eventually, social services intervened again. When he was around eleven or twelve Robert was removed from the family and placed into foster care And this time He did not return. Paul would later say that he never understood why it was Robert in the family home, A different story is told. Robert's father informs the remaining children that Robert has died Whether it was denial or cruelty The result is the same Robert is erased By adolescence, he has been institutionalized, returned Aused. And then just written out. I'm so sad Well at sixteen, Robert leaves Liverpool and runs away to London It doesn't read like ambition so much as disappearance, a teenager slipping into the capitol with no safety net waiting for him In London, his life collapses into crisis Drugs take hold, suicide attempts, not one but several punctuate these years. Psychiatric admissions came after that Each discharge sends him back to the same instability, the same transient rooms, the same streets. Pattern isn't progress is repetition The city is swallowing him and giving him back only when it has to goodoodness All that trauma and all that stuff just hanging on to you And you're just trying to escape? Yeah, escape into London and then you know, there's nothing there No stability Yeah, you know, he's just trying to find his way. Yeah Well during these years, Robert repeatedly tells doctors that he hears voices urging him to kill his parents. Cchnicians describe him as disturbed volatile and at risk to himself When he is not in hospital, he survives through sex work selling himself to men to findund drugs and temporary shelter, survival Not choice A way of staying afloat without ever finding stability T it all His thoughts keep circling back to his parents and the source of the violence a memory Never outrun Yeah, I definitely think u It would stick with you. Oh yeah. being locked in place and getting, you know, four to six times a day getting beaten Yeah God, like I don't know who could go through something like that and not have something be affected be affected by that go There is no clean, continuous path through these years On fragments, hospital admissions, short discharges and addresses that change Each intervention is temporary Treatment ends, housing falls away is released back into the same instability again and again He isn't building a life so much as moving through a cycle that never resolves By the time it breaks It won't feel sudden. It would feel like the outcome of years spent circling the same ground in full view They just This is where it st can tell the system, the medical system, the psychiatric system just failed Just fail to recognize how bad He was hurtting ins sign and how much to turmoil was in his head He needed, I think, stability with housing and, you know, kind of set to set him on a path of you know, success in the sense of stability you know, having maybe a job like a, you know, and housing and things like that, but also getting the support with his history of you know, abuse from his parents so Yeah. He needed to talk to a doctor and get it all out of him and and learn and learn how to cope within On the fourteenth of march, nineteen seventy four Maudsley went to a rented flat in Wood Green with a client he'd met while working as a sex worker The address was an ordinary London housing Temporary Anonymous The kind of place people move through quickly climb was John Farrell A thirty year old laborer Mosley was twenty Difting between rooms, short stays and whatever Cover the next night's shelter Inside the upstairs room Farrell showed him photographs of children he said he had abused detail is the part that survives in every account because it sits at the center of what followed There wasn't an argument that drifted on or a fight that built up over ourours Change was specific that images presented deliberately and the meaning Maorsley took from them immediately In later retellings, everything else falls away, the flat, the client arrangement, the small talk. living only that moment The violence that followed was quick It happened there in the flat in that one room without any chase or secondary location Mudsley. Garotted Ferrell. and killed him Later retellings would add color, motive, and language that tried to make the scene feel larger than it was Basic sequence stays simple The photographs were shown And within minutes. Paroh was dead Well afterwards Maudsley didn't try to disappear into London He walked out and went straight to the police telling officers he needed psychiatric help He didn't attempt to bargain the moment into something smaller or turn it into a story that might buy him time Outside the city carried on, traffic, shopfronts, commuters. while he placed himself into custody by choice I think that is Chz. I think I was quite confused off like he was shown the photographs He just lost it. He lost his mind and went, he probably blacked out it posossibly and was just like a and killed the guy and then kind of got out of the dazays and just went Oh fuck I think if you put yourself into his situation at the moment You know, with with the years of abuse growing up, especially from I mean, two years old, you know, first put into care and then back and forth you know to back to his parents and then you know, more abuse. I would assume that being abused as a child, whether it be sexually or physically, you know by being punched and kicked and etceta you, anybody that you come across that does things that will hurt children, I think in the back of your mind, you're You're going to fly at him I think of it like this as in, you know, like when you have soldiers that come back to have PTSD. Yeah and something will trigger them. That's one And they they' they think they're back in it. and then, you know I just recently this situation is like that. Yeah. I just seen recently seen a video of a poor poor veteran He got triggered and he's he's hasas his hands like he's holding his gun and he's Wh whereere's the enemy? Where's the enemy he's hiding, you know the trs from not working on the trauma, you know Um obviously in and out of psychiatric hospitals, you know, it doesn't seem like Maudley had enough support to deal with the trauma of his childhood. Yeah. one hundred percent The officers went to the woodgreen address and found Ferrell dead in the upstairs room Mosley had already handed himself in and the change u shaped uh the, you know, the shape of the case. It just what it w changed it. a' gott we ain't got to look for him.m Instead of moving quickly toward a conventional trial attention shifted to his mental state whether he was fit to face a jury at all and what the court legally d with him Yeah, obviously he's informed the place that he needs psychiatric help. So obviously they're going to have to go and have him Misseston and all of that. So but in the early press coverage A nickname surfaced and traveveled ue A reference to the colour Farrell's face was said to have turned during this strangulation. It followed Maudsley from the beginning, repeated until it became part of the version people passed along A nickname like that does two things at once It makes the story portable and it makes the person into a label Long before the paperwork caught up, the name had already traveled and names like that tend to outlast the details behind them That's what's the old the line a lie can travel around the world before the truth Put its shoes on. I've not heard that before, but yeah, it sounds very u I think I think it was Mark Twain But yeah, it's like news like that which just you before you know, a word or a name or whatever, that's what they roll with and it just spreads like wildfire. Yeah and just sticks The psychiatrists were brought in and interviews followed courts were prepared for the court And the question became capacity, not simply what he had done but whether he could answer for it through the ordinary criminal process at all. After a series of assessments, doctors reached a conclusion Maudsley was found unfit to stand trial and the case was diverted away from prosecution entirely. Lgally The focus moved from punishment Atainment The state deciding he belonged under secure psychiatric control Well years later, Maorsesley would describe that first killing plainly When I kill, I think I have to my parents in mind If I had killed my parents in nineteen seventy, none of these people would have died After that, the story stopped unfolding in public There was no jury to watch and no courtroom testimony to follow What came next happened inside locked systems? Wards, assessments, controlled movement Days were measured by routine and permission rather than verdicts From this point on, Maudsleve's life would be shaped less by headlines than by institutions supervision restriction and the slow accumulation of time Well, that's it, right? This Can cut. That's just a short a short one There's more. There's more. There's more. So just I gott to be a bit cheeky because it's some heavy shit Yeah. It's some heavy shit because even that you know, it's just You just feels so bad I mean, even though He shouldn't have done what he'd done. Oh, of course. You're just like, oh my God, Really? he should have been in a hospital Maudsley arrived at Broadmore Hospital in nineteen seventy four Officially he was a patient rather than a prisoner. the Practical reality looked similar Doors, supervised movement and decisions controlled by doctors rather than warders or judges Access, medication and privileges were granted or withdrawn by clinical order Broadmore presented itself as a hospital built for treatment and assessment Yet it also served a harder function containing men prison system considered too dangerous to manage anywhere else By the mid nineteen seventies, Broadmore was under strain Wards were crowded with men labeled violent or unpredictable and daily life relied more on routine than therapy Patients were separated by risk, movements staggered, privileges easily removed Incidents were recorded and absorbed into the paperwork Then the timetable resumed Stability mattered more than treatment Disruption was quickly contained and quietly Aim not of drama or punishment but of restoring order and moving on Well, among the men on Maudsley's ward were David Francis, a convicted child sex offender and David Ceseeman serving time for attempted murder. The three lived in close proximity, sharing the same corridors, dining areas, and exercise spaces day after day in secure confinement Familiarity forms whether you want it to or not The same faces appear at every meal and medication line Privacy shrinks down distance becomes impossible when every door locks behind you Well there had already been warning signs In September of nineteen seventy six Maudsley and Francis were involved in an incident in which another patient mononk was taken hostage It ended without a death It showed how easily control could fracture on the ward. Staff intervened and the situation was contained. Afterwards, the men returned to the same rooms and the same routines. They weren't moved to different wards or kept apart The risk was still there. I like, well maybe we need to separate these guys. You know, just move them over somewhere else It just seems like they'reen supervising, you know, kind of like not really suupervising.en just supervising these men. suupervising chaos. Stepping in when there's a bit of chaos and then just, you know, right C on guys, that's enough, you know? Oh, it's calm down now. Every's good now. thinkight. minimize the risk Let's keep them separated. Yeah Well, on the twenty sixth of february of nineteen seventy seven it's s off again. Because Maudsley and Cheeseeman isolated Francis inside a room and barricaded the door with furniture they had positioned in advance When staff tried to intervene, they were forced back by the barricade Alarms sounded and staff flooded into the corridor. Within minutes The ward was lockedown patients were secure where they stood Movement stopped and the floor was sealed What had been an ordinary hospital ward was now a secure perimeter with officers stationed outside a single closed door Wh the siege lasted roughly nine hours, Francis was held captive and assaulted inside the barricadeed room while staff tried to negotiate through the door Voices carried down the corridor. At one point, he shouted for help thenen the noise faded Officers and nurses waited outside, unable to force entry without escalating the danger Other patients listened from their own rooms, aware something serious was happening but unable to see it Well, when the officers finally decided to force entry David Francis was dead postmortem confirmed ligagure strangulation with a god Almost immediately, newspapers reported that his skull had been opened and that a spoon was found lodged in the wound Fueling claims that Maudley had eaten part of the man's brain The medical findings said otherwise Death was caused by asphyxia alone No evidence supported cannibalism The story spread quickly Anyways Well, here we go again the The lies travel faster than the truth. Yep, it does seem to be the way But it's like that tabloid stuff, you know, like they always try to sensationalize and lie about shit. and Yeah, most of the time, I think they have been pulled up in this time of but if you think back to sort of So those seventies sort of, it was rife with in a kind of elaborate in them and making things bigger than what they were I mean, the worst the worst one, I think back when I was young I think it was like called the National Equirer. Inquiring minds want to know. and it was just I was abducted by aliens and Elvis was living in my spare room. You know, and this was in the eighties, nineties. Yeah, but it's shit like that that people it was popular. People bought the shit out of it just to read sties Thatray st. That's what they did. They did do, you know, stuff like that in order to sell their papers. It was entertainment. Exactly. I think we've moved far away from that nowadays. I don't think it's as rife as it used to be. ye Well anyway, back on the ward, The ward was locked down and police took control of the scene Officers moved through the rooms taking photographs and statements while evidence was gathered and sealed What had functioned as a hospital hours earlier now felt like something else entirely. less a place of treatment than an active crime scene Maudsley and Ceseeman surrendered without resistance. which was good. and accepted responsibility for Francis's death. Nurses stepped back. as detectives took over Frrom that point on, everything slowed down and became fixed in sequence, focused on reconstructing what had happened inside the barricaded room Both men later told investigators the attack had been planned days in advance. W furniture moved deliberately to create the barricade Cheiseman explained his motive plainly He wanted to leave Broadmore and be sent to a regular prison and said that he would kill again. if he remained in hospital And he I got a newspaper clipping that that's exactly what he told the judge He's like I don't give a shit what? I want to go to prison and If you don't do it kill again. I'll be right back here in front of you It makes you wonder what it was like in Broadmore at the time, you know obviously We're not really focusing too much on treatment of these people Um But then, you know Wh's to say they weren't sedated too much, you know, or ust to keep him calm. Yeah keep him docile. So he's thinking, rightight, I want to actually go and be put in a mainstream prison He obviously thought was going to be completely different in a sense of routines and things like that, I'm guessing. Yeah. Well, that statement wasn't dramatic or emotional It read like a calculation a direct route out of the Ward system at whatever the cost Wh they were charged and brought before the court, psychiatric evidence was heard But responsibility wasn't disputed Maudsley and Chiseman played Gily to the Manslor. A sentence of life imprisonment followed, and the judge recommended their removal from Broadmore to a high security prison With that ruling, the hospital's role in Maudsley's case ended The man once treated as a patient was now formally processed as a convicted prisoner Well, soon after, he was escorted out under guard and transferred into the prison system Fraud Moore was behind him Category A, estate, Lay ahead. less medical. purely for custody There was no ceremony Another handover between staff Once set the doorors opened, Another closed The location changed But the confinement didn't Morsley arrived at HMP Wakefield in nineteen seventy eight The uniforms changed, the paperwork changed But the look certainty remained. Wakefield widely known as Monster Mansion. Monster Mansion. covered a few cases with some guys that are housed in Monster Mansion. It is known for by the name Monster Mansion for the number of high risk and notorious inmates that it houses is one of the country's highest security prisons buuilt to contain men judged too dangerous for anywhere else Life ran on strict routine arles, searches Escorted movement Doors opened and closed by schedule It was a place where unpredictability was engineered out of daily life Mudley settled into wing life quietly He kept his cell orderly, spokke little, and avoided attention But reputation travels faster than behavior inside a category A prison O men already knew his history from Broadmore. which Like weent said The lies traveled faster than the truth. Nearby was Salany Darwood Serving life for killing his wife. Another was William Roberts, serving seven years for trying to strangle a four year old girl in order to sexually assault her.. At the time, there were no vulnerable prison wings So everyone lived side by side and everyone knew the charges. Yeah. Yeah, they weren't separated back then. No, they weren't. It was You know, no matter what crit you could have shoplifters with murderers and do you know what I mean? Yeah. And then you've got the soual offects Low level crimal people with but I suppose with Monster mansion, though It was the notorious four really violent people. So I don't think you'd have shoplifters in there But You know, it was still Mid level crimes and you know, they were all mixed. There was no protection for what the point of it was the sexual offenders aren't separated like they are now. No. Obviously they are. They're mixed in with everyone else. Yeah and they all know what you've been doing So Starwood and Maudsley fell into a small routine together. Darwood gave him French lessons, pass in T timee with vocabulary lists and short conversations across the landing It looked harmless, almost studious The sort of quiet exchange prisons encourage to keep order Nothing about it suggested danger So when Darwood stepped into Maordley's cell on the morning of Saturday the twenty ninth of july of nineteen seventy eight It didn't draw attention. It looked like any other ordinary visit between two men trying to pass the time That is nice though. You have nothing else to do you say He guy, you know, hey, I know French, you know, like Well, I do nothing else. Let's learn how to speak French That's pretty cool Well Unfortunately, once inside The door closed behind him Mudsley attacked him with a garot and a makeshift weapon which some some reports on that describe it as like a dagger And They think they call it a Siv now don't they Well, yeah, but he he made it himself toothbrush probably. Yeah The struggle was brief and contained within the narrow space of the cell When it was over, Darwood was dead Maudsley dragged the body over to his bed and hid it underneath Then he waited He tried to coax other prisoners inside callalling out casually along the landing Later inmates would say They could all see the madness in his eyes One by one. They refused No one crossed that threshold No, I wouldn't either Tkey Well unable to lure anyone else in, he stepped back onto the wing Around him the morning routine carried on Doors opening, men move in between cells Officers counting heads He scanned the landing for someone else William Roberts lay on his bunk in his own cell The two men had never met There was no personal history between them, only the offense that had put Roberts in there place like Wakefield, that detail was common knowledge Maudley entered Roberts' cell and attacked quickly Roberts was stabbed repeatedly, his head forced against the wall again and again The violence was close and immediate confined to the space around the bunk He died where he lay Within a single morning, two men on the same landing. We're dead That's crazy That's crazy man It's like what's triggered this? you know? I don't know, but he's just like Okay, I got one. I'm gonna go get another one, try get try to get people to come into this stuff. Yeah Well, if he planned on killing bunch from later reporting and that So what happened next is one of the few moments preserved almost word for word Maudsley walked into the wing office, carrying the weapon the homemade knife on the desk spoke evenly to the duty officer. They will be too short at roll callall No shouting, no rush ust just a statement. Seconds later, the alarm sounded According to later reports, Maudsley didn't intend to only kill two men that morning It was widely stated by those present that he had set out to kill several more that day Wow I mean after killing the first first guy in the prison. U you know, where he's calling for other people to come to his cell It's like he didn't have a plan specific people. he's just, you know, anybody that that will anybody that walks on by. Yeah as his calling. so Yeah. I mean, I'm not condoning anything or whatever But what a line. That is a wild line There will be too short at roll call That's something you'd think is like in a movie. I mean, that's the only one good thing about his acts. He is hisself in. He's you know, he's not trying to do a obviously he can't do a runner in prison, but You know, he's not he's not trying to get an eye in. that he's doing these things So I Well, the landing was locked down immediately Prisoners were secured where they stood while officers searched the cells Starwood's body was found concealed beneath Maudley's bed. Roberts was confirmed dead in his own room West Yorkshire pololice were called and Wakefield shifted from routine custody to criminal investigation By the end of the morning, the wing was a sealed scene controlled by officers and detectives rather than prison star Well, the postmortem examinations were done and it confirmed fatal injuries consistent with ligature strangulation, stabbing, and blunt force trauma across the two attacks This time, psychiatric evidence did not divert the case away from trial In nineteen seventy nine, Maudsley appeared before the Crown Court at Leeds, charged with two counts of murder The defense argued diminished responsibility They didn't dispute the facts. The jury rejected the argument and returned guilty verdicts on both counts sensing followed swiftly Maudley was sentenced to life imprisonment with a whole life tariff Historically in the UK, this status could be influenced by decisions from the homeome Secretary as well as judges But in Maudsley's case, the practical effect has always been that he has been held indefinitely with no scheduled review Back at Wakefield, governors faced a practical problem This man who had killed in the community, killed in hospital, and now killed twice inside their own prison Ordinary segregation had not stopped him Standard wings could not hold him safely. Whatever solution came next would have to be physical. Disciplinary somethingomething built to prevent contact altogether. Above ground, the prison resumed its routine. belelow. Staff began taking measurements in the basement concrete deeal and reinforstced glass were discussed Wakefield head decided that ordinary custody was no longer enough and that something new would have to be constructed. A space designed to hold One man alone Yeah, they're definitely thinking this this guy cannot be around other people. he's too much of a risk. He just explodes and it point. Yeah he's going to k spontaneous in the way that he You know, because obviously he was quite friendly with the first guy. and they never would have thought that You know, because they see him getting along with him So I think I' to frame a lily spontaneous flip And that definitely is too dangerous to be and I I W no w sorry on a wing with other people. Yeah Be even though, you know some of these other guys have done horrible stuff and whatever They're serving their time. They're serving the time of that the state has Hand it down. You know, and they still need to be protected. Yeah, off course. I mean, you know, and I think with the with most majority of people in there They They're in there for their reasons. but you know, There are risk assessments. all the time. the officers will watch people's behaviours, their friendships and see if there's any conflicts between prisoners. Yeah. you know, presumably A lot of the prisoners can be mixed whereereas obviously he Maorysley is showing that he's just a live wire go off at any moment, you know? Yeah. You can someone just going around murdering people. Yeah without I mean, there's no argument, no arguments happened U, so Well in nineteen eighty three, that decision took physical form beneath HMP Wakefield Not a repurpose segregation cell or an adapted wing built unit designed for just one prisoner It was a two cell suite in the basement The measurements were modest for a prison room roughly five and a half by four and a half meters It was about eighteen by five fif a fate I don't know that meters thing. I need freedom units And he'd feet in inches. It's slightly larger than average. Yeah. but it was planned for surveillance and control rather than comfort So every element of the cell had a purpose Large observation windows allowed staff to watch without entering bed was a concrete slab these sink and toilet were bolted to the floor. A steel door opened into a secondary barrier. Perspex or plexiglass inner cage Turning the cell into a room inside a room Even the furniture was engineered A table and chair made from compressed cardboard Nothing could be lifted dismantled or turned into a weapon Morsley lived alone for twenty three hours a day His single hour of exercise was timed and suupervised When he moved, he was escorted by several officers Sometimes as many as six He didn't mix with other prisoners or attend workshops. There was no shed meals, no time on the wing, no conversations across landings Contact was severely reduced to the minimum. required to just keep him alive and accounted for I mean' extreme. couldn't not interact with somebody Yeah just might have interacted with the officers while they were escorting him, but that's not the same as having a ice conversation. Just having a friend to talk to. It's very lonely, sounding, horrible Well, daily life inside the unit was stripped down to transactions Food and personal items were passed through a hatch Staff observed him through thick plexiglass instead of actually getting near him. If he needed to be moved through the prison Routes were cleared first and doors opened one at a time Each section secured before the next Corridors were emptied before he emerged Movement. wasasn't casual or spontaneous It was choreographed. contontrolled in brief like Before he emerged like he's some sort of fucking supervillain That's crazy. Well, for a time though, the isolation wasn't continuous Years into his confinement, Maudsley was transferred out of Wakefield and sent south to HMP Parkhurst on the Isle of White which is a category B prism less extreme than Wakefield's category A regime. but still reserved for serious and high risk offenders The move didn't soften his status. It remained segregated and closely supervised. But it marked a rare change in approach Instead of pure containment, the emphasis briefly shifted towards some treatment Tim This is where my G finally. Finally, he gets somewhere where they can talk to somebody and talk to a doctor. I support a no you know, encouragement to do better And you're just left, you know, you're like guarded With no support, not enough support and no treatment support, then how do you expect people to rehabilitate and change? You know, there has to be treatment plan for people So give them a chance to change. At Parkhurst, Maudsley came under the care of psychiatrist Dr Bob Johnson Johnson later said he encountered him in May of nineteen ninety one and that it took more than two years of regular visits and negotiations with prison staff before he was even allowed to sit with him face to face. On after that the work properly begin one to one interviews inside the cell. Johnson positioned close to the door and Maudsley at the far end of the bed Johnson recorded hours of audio, sometimes video. Building a cautious routine based on consent and trust rather than restraint. Well the counclling continued for around three years. Johnson described it as a trauma focused work, which I agree is what this man needed. Yeah way before he went to prison. Revisiting Maudsley's childhood abuse and trying to separate those memories from the violent reactions that followed him into adulthood He believed progress was being made and later said Maudsley was, quote, three quarters of the way through Dismantling the aggression and l latent violence that had made him so dangerous Prison authorities ended the treatment without warning and transferred Maudsley back to Wakefield to the same basement. u unit Back to the same glass and steel For the first time in years, someone had tried to talk to him instead of contain him That ended too From that point on, The regime returned to what it had always been Separation first Everything else second I mean, I get, you know, resources to, I mean, obviously as counseling and stuff was going on in like three years. a long time, you know, I mean, I personally have had some counseseling and it was a six week course, you know, like one hour a week There's never seems to be enough ongoing support. Yeah. which I do understand with resources and things like that. but People need it He needed it. paper bad. Yeah. and he was thing he was going helped his havi Had he been allowed to continue have continued support? It seemed like it was changing his mindset. a little bit. So you know It's just a shame. It's just such a shame that u There's not able to be ongoing support no matter how long it takes. It could have helped could have helped the prison system in itself Yeah to manage him to where he would be no longer just flying into rages and killing people Yeah, you know, he would be able to manage himself and manage his tr and be you know even on a minimal basis, be able to interact with other prisoners. Yeah. You know, whether that's limited, he has an hour a day where he can sit with somebody, play chess, play play board games, whatever build up on that social interaction with other people in a safe and non violent way Yeah, you know Well there were other brief transfers in the late nineteen nineties around nineteen ninety eight to nineteen ninety nine Maudsley was moved to the close supervision center at HMP Woodhill another category B prison near Milton Kayes. conditions there were looser than at Wakefield more contact, more privileges But it didn't last Mauley was moved back to Wakefield to the same basement unit to the same glass and steel preparation was reinstated and whatever had briefly changed was undone Yet again It's like why they keep shipping them out You know, why maybe they were doing upgrades to the sale or whatever, but you know Why are you Why couldn't they see how he was doing Yeah. and he was doing better. He wasn't attacking people and stuff. I mean, obviously we don't have the full record of everything Yeah that's happened. but It seemed like, you know, he's sitting there, he's playing games with people. He's trying and he's trying to be a different person. Yeah Well, after that return to Wakefield, his brother Paul was blunt about what he believed was happening. As far as I can tell prison authorities are trying to break him And this was an interview with the Guardian Every time they see him making a little progress, they throw a spanner in the works He spent time at Woodhill and was getting on well with staff even playing chess with them Now they have put him back in the cage at Wakefield. His troubles started because he got locked up as a kid All they do When they put him back there is bring all that trauma back to him Well away from the headlines, the details were mundane and human Staff described him reading, writing letters and listening to classical music expressed interest in poetry aret and hope to study music theory through the openen University phhotographs were rare By the early two thousands, the only images circulating were already decades old, taken long before the full years of isolation had accumulated I mean, that's we use photographs to document our lives and over the years And he's just paper He only exists on paper and in the cage Then came a moment that left an official footprint In March of two thousand Maudley appealed for the terms of his solitary confinement to be relaxed He wrote that he wanted small comforts, a television music tapes and a budgie. Oh Yeah. alsoso known as a parakeet Do prisoners have pets in jail Yeah. I mean, sometimes there's some pr like've I've seen I've seen stuff where u there was a prison where where they had cats. Yeah different a therapy thing Yeah. Yeah, it's it's like, u They had the cats and it did wonders Yeah. People were there was less arguments because they didn't want to leose their cats I mean, that's gonna to annoy other prisoners if he's, you know able to go on a wing because this's gonna to be tweet tweeting and whatnot. I think he's just m down there as someone friend ye. Something to talk to. Hey little buddy, you know, and something to care for? Oh Of all the things to ask for, though, budie Well, he said quote Why can't I have a budgie instead of the flies and cockroaches and spiders I currently have I promise to love it and not eat it That would probably be because they they've, you know, the newspapers bled him. Yeah. so He's like, I probablyomise won't eat it I mean, the poor guy, I do feel sorry for him. giveive him the damn budgy, you know? Yeah Well, he added an ultimatum Prison serervice says no. Then I ask for a simple cyanide capsule which I shall take willingly The problem of Robert John Maudsley can easily and swiftly be resolved. And the prison said no They refused his requests So he didn't even get a television He didn't get it yet you know, he's like, hey, just give me something. And that is sad. I mean, you know, for somebody's mental health Yes, okay, they need to be punished for crimes that they've committed. but How can you expect A human with quite sophisticated minds You know, very very needing TV Brain needs activity do it. Yeah. Um, content It's just so sad just so s I couldn't even imagine liiving a life like he is in stuck with no And just think this I know through they've done it through his as a result of his actions actions. Yeah There has to come a time surely where you keep trying to see how they're doing. Do where they can. You have to test the limits. Yeah. you have to test and give some trust You pretty much have to say, okay, we're going to try this out. We're going to test this out. If you if you mess up and you fly off and fucking hurt people and stuff You're goingone back in the cage. You're done, you know, you just and you will be there indefinitely. Yeah. And just think this he' stay he's staying this stuff in two thousand. He's been in that cage since, you know, like eighty three ish. Yeah And only out a couple of times to go to Parkhurst and Woodill That's it. We've known from cases, you know that the nails say that' You should only have like two weeks maximum of being ins solitary because of your mental health decline. ye,' That's a bloody horrendous long time that he's been in. Yeah. Over time, his custody was absorbed into the prrison serervices' close supervision center system. The most restrictive category available Reviews came and went but the practical reality stayed the same. The room didn't change. The schedule didn't change twenty three hours in, one hour out year after year The arrangement remained fixed Well by two thousand three, the Gardian referred to the basement unit as glass cage Note in the uncomfortable resemblance to the cell later shown in the silence of the Lamb movie. Comparison wasn't cinematic invention, but practical design Isolate the risk, reduce contact, observe through reinforced barriers The paper describes the regime plainly twenty three hours locked in, one hour out and no interaction with other inmates The same Guardian piece carried Maudsley's own words Prison authorities see me as a problem And their solution has been to put me into solitary confinement and throw away the key 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. Vvegetate and to regress to confront my solitary head on with people who have eyes but don't see. and who have ears Don't hear. who have mouths Don't speak My life in solitary is one long period of unbroken depression God It's so very sad Well, for years, one of the most notorious men in Wakefield was Charlie Bronson He was housed separately, but close enough to observe Maworsley in a distance In a two thousand eight interview with The Independent, Bronson described life inside the segregation system Limited staff contact, two visits a month and days measured by locked doors He said Maudsley was allowed to exercise between two and three PM From his own position, Bronson watched him pacing alone under supervision separated from everyone else Did you see him outside walking around He's totally mad. he should be ab backack in Broadmore Bronson's account reduced separation to something simple and visual. One man in an empty yard officers spaced around him No one else permitted near They weren't housed together and weren't allowed to speak, yet the presence of another prisoner was enough to create tension I've seen him go mad I know What's happened to him We hate each other now Even distance didn't prevent hostility from forming between them. The hostility wasn't abstract, it was a specific cause In the same interview, Bronson said the rift began over something small A Siko watch he had offered Maudsley Instead of keeping it, Maudsley reportedly asked an officer to throw it away In another setting, it might have meant nothing, but inside segregation, it hardened into a grudge. Bronson later wrote about the exchange in luneology I then tell Bob he is an ungrateful bastard and he says that he will stab my eyes out and eat my heart. Maybe the untold solitary years have made him madder fromrom then on whatever distance the prison imposed became personal Yeah That's mild Goodness gracious Say you're an ungrateful bastard. Well, you know what? I'm gonna stab your eyes out and eat your heart. What the fuck That that escalated quite quite a like zero to one hundred. Yeah, whoa, whoa, guy sllowown. Honestly Well The story didn't end at Wakefield's basement door In March of twenty twenty five Reports say Maudsley began a hunger strike after staff confiscated items described as luxuries A games console A music system So He did afterfter a while Yeah. I think they finally was like We can't keep human rights. I mean, Jesus Christ, you, you know You can't expect somebody just to fully sit in confinement with no stimulation whatsoever. Yeah. it's just in kind of like You know, America we have the rights against cruel and unusual punishment. You know, it's human rights. It's like, hey, man, come on, like ill a human being, you need to give him something to keep m occupied while you cant things didn't. it's just gonna go, you know, the behavior they're gonna go crazy. Yeah, you know, and it's gonna to end up when they say go and take him on his one hour exercise, he's going to play up. he's going to be you know Bive and yeah because he's not going to be in his right mind and stimulated in anyway Well weeks later, he was reported to have been moved to HMP Whiteemore Another category A prison The location shifted, but the approach stayed familiar Whver he was held The solution remained the same preparation or early headlines turned into something else entirely. Cannibal the C cannibal, they wrote repeating claims that he had eaten part of a victim's brain Other names followed. Brainier, spoons, even blue and each travel quickly through the press Even though the postmortem findings disproved the cannibalism allegation, the story had already tralled too far to catch. Correction followed quieter and slower and never reached as many ears The nickname proves stickier than the evidence. ye For decades, his confinement has been argued over as much as his crimes Critics say that years of near total isolation risk a psychological collapse and may breach basic human rights standards. officials answer with the same record Killings in the community, a killing in a hospital Two more inside a prison Their position is practical rather than philosophical No ordinary location has ever held him safely B repeats Unresolved whenever his name resurfaces Dr. Johnson tried to contact Maudsley several times after his time at Parkhurst But his letters went mostly unanswered until he received a three word message in the post All alone now No explanation No argument. just a statement A human voice reduced to a line of ink He is often described as one of the longest held prisoners in solitary confinement. No official ledger confirms a record holder And the system rarely ranks suffering that way It can be said with certainty is simpler, a purpose built unit constructed in nineteen eighty three for a single man and more than four decades spent mostly in solitary regimes with only brief interruptions His case surfaces again and again whenever punishment, risk and humanity are weighed against each other Yeah, just just think as long as we've been alive, he's been in that cage Yeah, I'm just turned forty two. I was born at eighty four, so that's forty three years in and out of this, you know, different jails, but always in solitary That cra. Just imagine your whole life that you've lived up to this point You've been in a cage only being transactions between hatches and chained and walked around for an hour outside and then you're right back in it. And only sort of respite from that situation was being able to see the doctor for those three years You I the only interaction that he really that was worthwhile. Yeah. And then going to Woodhill for a couple of years I couldn't I couldn't imagine if I'd last that long to be fair. Awesome It is horrendous. I know he' done some horrendous crimes, but I think, you know, it comes a point where you need to go, hey, we need to treat him differently Yeah and give him a chance he's never died. I mean, change the law, Bring back death penalty. put these people out of this type of That he said that he said that in two thousand. G me a cyanaide pill. Let me take care of it for you. Yeah You know, and they're like, no Policies are revised, inspected, renamed Governors retire. Prison names change on paperwork The structure remains A light behind rainforced glass. door that opens only by procedure Days measured in checks Eescorts and observation windows And in the margin of the record And no that says everything the system does not All alone now Well that was the story of the man in the glass box, Robert Maudsley. uch a sad story. That got to me more than then, you know, we've done cases, I've read stuff and preparing for future cases and stuff That that's that's gotot, you know, All alone now. That's all he wrote Yeah, reducing someone to that to that level. is c it's just crazy I definitely, you know, like I said before, In my opinions, yes, he did commit some hein of crimes and you know, but something has to give. I think How can you expect somebody be so isolated for such a long time and not go go crazy Yeah this is where I say, you know, to lose their mind more than what it was. they never they they They didn't go why did he do this They just said, he did this, lock his ass, you know, throw away the fucking key. They never said Why the fuck is he doing this? But then why not looking to transfer him back to a hospital? you know, clelearly. He needs treatment You know, u go through his trauma properly and prisons Don't don't tend to do that You know, they don't tend to focus on treatments and Oh, let's, you know I mean, they rehabilitation, they have the workshops and things like that and you know, education stuff where they can do courses and things for somebody like Maudsley. He needed a little bit more intense therapy on his trauma from his childhood and young adolescents and growing, you know, young adults everything that he'd experienced himself. he needed help to work on that. Yeah. I'm glad that he hasn't been alone because he he's had his brother Paul. Yeah. and he's also had his nephew. They go and see him. And it's so Wh Beuse you like I watched a documentary It's well worth a watch on YouTube that they're like We just know him as Bob. He's just Bob. He's polite. He's not, you know, he's funny L You see the those things that and you see that human side of him and you're just like He's not a fucking supervillain. He's not some comic book character come to life, you know, he's a fucking human being And you need to take care of him and need to take care of his mental health and help him you know, to where he is not dangerous to everybody and he can rejoin the wings and that and have the human interactions. I mean, he's cry he seems to be crying out over these years for something, you know, for a chance to show that he can change and he can be a good member of Pison society, you know I? Just giveem a budgie Jesus Or at least yeah, Just give him a bloody budget. Just a little parakekey, you know If he hurts that, then, you know, tell him you told him so but So then you think also, he's been in there so long that people come and go. And all they hear is the reputation. Yeah. He's a cannibal, He's spoons, he's the brain eater you know, and he'll if you're not careful to eat your face off, you know, in this makes you think more prisoners even want to, you know, approach him and interact with him. so It's a tough one. It really is a tough one, but I definitely don't think that you know, extreme solitary confinement is the answer. What do you reckon? let us know guys? now Well, thank you very, very much for listening We really appreciate you. Hanging out with us and listening to the story of Robert Mudsley. 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