‘Hannibal the Cannibal’ Robert Maudsley forced to quit favorite TV show after prison taunts

Prisoners who shared a TV with Robert Maudsley – a notorious inmate kept in a glass cell – often turned off his favorite shows Emmerdale and Coronation Street to irritate him.

Nicknamed “Hannibal the Cannibal” and “The Brain Eater”, Maudsley spent 50 years in prison, 45 of which were in solitary confinement.

In the revealing book, Inside Wakefield Prison: Life Behind Bars in the Monster Mansion, authors Jonathan Levi and Emma French provide insight into Maudsley’s incarceration. They describe how he lived in a secure cell with Perspex walls, but still had eye contact with adjacent inmates.

READ MORE: The sadistic life and murders of Robert Maudsley living in a glass box under the ‘Monster Mansion’ HMP Wakefield

Jonathan Levi and Emma French spoke to a source inside the prison, known only as Pete, who detailed: “They used to share a TV and they would take turns choosing what to watch. It was only until 8pm, not like these days. where they can watch TV 24/7 because they have TVs in their own cells.”

Pete explained the system: “If Bob (Robert M) chose Monday, then he would choose Wednesday, Friday, Sunday, etc. and would return every week. If he was there alone, he could choose every night,” he reports. the mirror.

He went on to say: “If he and his neighbor didn’t get along, it could prevent him from watching the shows he liked during their choice days. Even if they wanted to look at the same things, they might be doing it to annoy him. .”

Pete also mentioned that Maudsley liked Emmerdale and Coronation Street, but his fellow inmate maliciously changed the channels just as the programs were starting, much to Maudsley’s chagrin.

Maudsley, 70, was convicted of the murder in 1974 at the age of 21 and was held separately from other prisoners for 45 years after killing three inmates.

He was jailed for strangling child abuser John Farrell in Wood Green, London, after Farrell showed Maudsley images of the children he abused.

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Maudsley, originally from Liverpool, quickly confessed to police. However, as he was deemed unfit to stand trial, he was sent to Broadmoor Hospital.

In 1977, Maudsley and fellow inmate David Cheeseman shared a cell with child abuser David Francis.

They tortured him for nine hours before showing Francis’ body. Maudsley was then convicted of manslaughter and sent to HMP Wakefield.

However, his killer spree continued just a year later in 1978.

He strangled and stabbed Salney Darwood, 46, then stabbed pedophile Bill Roberts, 56, before bashing his skull with a dagger and banging his head against a wall.

Maudsley was later sentenced to life in prison and placed in a Plexiglas box in the basement, measuring 18 ft by 14 ft, for 23 hours a day.

Staff were reportedly extra cautious around the convicted killer, fearing he would “kill you in the blink of an eye” and “kill anyone he came near”.

A source named Pete, who claimed to be ‘very familiar’ with Maudsley, said: ‘The sad thing is if she lived with someone else she would kill someone else. It would have been more humane to just put it. down.”