Forgotten serial killer who butchered a priest with an axe and is UK’s longest serving prisoner could be freed
A FORGOTTEN serial killer who hacked a priest to death and butchered ten other victims could soon be freed from jail. Depraved Patrick Mackay, 67, is the UK’s longest serving prisoner after being convicted of a gruesome killing spree across London and Kent in 1975. The “psycho” hacked-up the body of a priest in a […]
A FORGOTTEN serial killer who hacked a priest to death and butchered ten other victims could soon be freed from jail.
Depraved Patrick Mackay, 67, is the UK’s longest serving prisoner after being convicted of a gruesome killing spree across London and Kent in 1975.
The “psycho” hacked-up the body of a priest in a bathtub and is said to have slaughtered a widow and her four-year-old grandson.
Chilling photos show Mackay – dubbed the “most dangerous man in Britain” looking deranged as his cold, dead eyes stare into the camera.
Another series of harrowing images feature the fiend wolfing down a chicken his stole from his mother as he distorts his face for the camera.
MONSTER BACK ON THE STREET
The disturbing pictures are from John Lucas’ new book Britain’s Forgotten Serial Killer: The Devil’s Disciple, which retells the horror of the Nazi-obsessed killer.
He says the monster has changed his name and is due to be moved to an open prison – meaning he could soon be prowling the streets again.
The author added: “Mackay faded into obscurity in the minds of the British public, far more than other serial killers of his era.
“In fact, he has been able to change his name and win the right to live in an open prison – the first step on the road to eventual freedom – without a shred of publicity surrounding the decision.”
BRUTAL KILLING SPREE
Mackay was convicted of three killings at trial but is suspected of a further eight. His first victim was widow Isabella Griffiths, 87, who was strangled and stabbed at her home in Chelsea.
He then strangled Adele Price, 89, in Kensington before upping his grisly killing technique.
The brute butchered Father Anthony Crean, 63, using his fists, a knife and an axe, before leaving his mutilated body in a bath full of bloody water.
He was charged with five counts of murder but was convicted of three counts of manslaughter due to diminished responsibility.
‘DEVIL’S DISCIPLE’
Among those suspected of being Mackay’s other victims are popular cafe owner Ivy Davis, who was found at her Westcliff-on-sea home with multiple wounds to her head, as well as a ligature around her neck in February 1975.
The killer also allegedly confessed to four other murders while rotting in jail – including Stephanie Britton and her four-year-old grandson Christopher Martin in 1974.
Another chilling confession was to the murder of au pair Heidi Mnilk, 18, who was knifed in the neck on a train between London Bridge and New Cross before being hurled on to tracks.
Mackay became known as the Monster of Belgravia, the Devil’s Disciple and The Psychopath when he was finally brought to justice.
FORGOTTEN KILLER
But despite the brutality of his crimes, Mackay was quickly forgotten by those left horrified across the nation.
Mr Lucas said: “It was a case that left the nation stunned, both by the pure brutality of Mackay’s crimes and his unrepentant evil.
“Yet the extraordinary story of this 22-year-old Nazi-obsessive, who hacked a priest to death with an axe and killed two elderly women during a remorseless robbery campaign on the upmarket streets of West London, was all but forgotten by Christmas of 1975.”
If Mackay really did kill 11 people, he would hold the grisly title of Britain’s fifth most prolific serial killer behind Dr Harold Shipman, Dennis Nilsen, Peter Sutcliffe and Fred and Rose West.
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Lucas added: “Far from being one of Britain’s most notorious inmates, he is not even recognised as being the country’s longest-serving living prisoner.
“That title was wrongly held by murderer John Massey before he was released in May 2018, even though he had been jailed seven months after Mackay in May 1976.
“Most assume the flamboyant and infamous Charlie Bronson now holds the record, but that is not the case.
“Instead, it is the forgotten serial killer, Patrick Mackay, who has been inside the longest.”
