The gruesome story of Britain’s most dangerous killer, ‘Hannibal the Cannibal’, who tortured and killed a fellow inmate

A new book has shed light on life inside one of Britain’s most notorious prisons, home to a terrifying killer nicknamed ‘Hannibal the Cannibal’.

Released Thursday (June 20) Inside Wakefield Prison: Life Behind Bars in Monster Mansion by Jonathan Levi and Dr Emma French takes us inside HMP Wakefield, one of the UK’s most dangerous buildings.

The infamous prison is nicknamed the “Monster Mansion” because of the high number of violent criminals, criminals and high-risk sex offenders.

Criminals who have passed through Wakefield’s corridors include serial killer Harold Shipman, Charles Bronson and disillusioned Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins.

However, one of the most fascinating cases is the story of the so-called “Hannibal the Cannibal”, who is rumored to have eaten the brain of another inmate.

Aerial view of HMP Wakefield. (Duncan Cuthbertson/Getty Images)

“Hannibal the Cannibal” was a chilling nickname given to 70-year-old Robert Maudsley, who holds the record for the longest inmate in solitary confinement.

Maudsley was born in Liverpool in 1953 and spent his early years growing up in a Catholic orphanage with his three siblings. The children were briefly returned to their parents’ care before being removed again due to physical abuse by their father.

Maudsley would go on to claim that the abuse at the hands of his parents caused psychological scarring.

He later moved to London and worked as a sex worker, where he met his first victim, John Farrell, in 1974. A client of his, Maudsley, had garroted him after Farrell revealed images of children he had sexually abused.

Maudsley’s next victim was an inmate at Broadmoor Hospital, the 1977 murder earning him the gruesome name of ‘Hannibal the Cannibal’.

Rumors of cannibalism were later proven to be false.

He earned himself a creepy nickname. (Channel 5)

David Francis was a convicted child abuser who was killed after a sustained attack by Maudsley, which saw him tortured and a spoon stuck in his brain.

Following the murder, Maudsley was sent to HMP Wakefield after being convicted of manslaughter, where he would face another crime in 1978.

This time his targets were Salney Darwood and William Roberts, later confessing to the duty officer that they would have two people short at the next roll call. Maudsley was then convicted of double murder and sent to solitary confinement in Wakefield, where he has remained ever since.

He is kept in isolation. (BBC)

Maudsley is considered such a risk to other prisoners that a specially developed cell was built for him in 1983.

Measuring 8 feet by 14 feet and housed in the prison’s basement, Maudsley’s cell resembles Hannibal Lecter’s in the 1991 film. The silence of the lambs.

He is monitored 23 hours a day and can only leave his cell when flanked by four police officers.