Robert Maudsley, the infamous British serial killer known as Hannibal the Cannibal, has gone on a hunger strike after prison authorities confiscated his PlayStation, TV, and books. The 71-year-old, who has spent nearly five decades behind bars—mostly in solitary confinement—is refusing meals and vows not to eat until his belongings are returned.
Maudsley, infamous for allegedly eating part of a victim’s brain, has been locked up for 49 years in a specially designed glass-walled cell at Wakefield Prison in West Yorkshire.
His brother, Paul Maudsley, told The Sun that Robert is furious over the loss of his gaming console, which he used to play war games and chess.
“Bob is always polite, but when he complained, officers accused him of being abusive,” Paul said. “When he got back to his cell, they had taken everything—his TV, PlayStation, books, and radio. Now he has nothing to stimulate him.”
Maudsley’s brutal crimes began in 1974 when he strangled child molester John Farrell in London after Farrell showed him pictures of his victims. He was sent to Broadmoor, a high-security psychiatric hospital, where he and another inmate, David Cheeseman, tortured and killed another convicted child molester, David Francis, in 1977.
Deemed too dangerous for Broadmoor, Maudsley was transferred to Wakefield Prison in 1978. There, he went on another killing spree, strangling and stabbing Salney Darwood, 46, before turning his rage on paedophile Bill Roberts, 56, whom he stabbed to death and repeatedly smashed against a wall.
His violent rampage led authorities to place him in extreme solitary confinement, inside a glass-walled cell built specifically to contain him.
According to Inside Wakefield Prison: Life Behind Bars in the Monster Mansion, a book by Jonathan Levi and Emma French, Maudsley is locked up for 23 hours a day in a cell made entirely of cardboard, with 17 steel doors separating him from the rest of the prison.
Paul Maudsley fears that the loss of his brother’s entertainment will take a severe toll on his mental state. “He’s back to how he was 10 years ago, just sitting there with nothing. I’m really worried about how long he can survive without eating.”