Serial killer dubbed the Devil’s Disciple who admitted killing EIGHT people – including two elderly women and a priest – could be RELEASED as he prepares for a parole hearing after 48 years behind bars
- Patrick Mackay jailed after killing two elderly women and a priest in 1975
- He also admitted eight other murders and has been in jail for 48 years
Angry families of victims of a serial killer dubbed the Devil’s Disciple are demanding he is left to die in prison as he prepares to plead for freedom at a parole hearing.
Patrick Mackay, now 70, was jailed after killing two elderly women and a priest in 1975 and admitting eight other murders.
After 48 years in jail, he is believed to be Britain’s longest-serving killer, but has a parole hearing next month.
His victims’ relatives and the former police chief who caught Mackay warn that he remains a danger to the public.
Retired Detective Inspector Ken Tappenden, one of the Kent Police team who apprehended Mackay, said: ‘He should never be freed. He could turn and become extremely dangerous.’
Patrick Mackay (pictured), now 70, was jailed after killing two elderly women and a priest in 1975 and admitting eight other murders
Ken Tappenden (pictured), who caught Mackay, with the axe Mackay used to kill priest Anthony Crean
And Gareth Johnson, MP for Dartford in Kent, where Mackay was raised, fears his freedom bid may succeed because he isn’t as notorious as other killers, such as Moors murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley.
‘The public don’t know about Mackay and must be made aware,’ he said. ‘The nature of his crimes is so severe he should die in prison.’
Although he was jailed for a minimum of 20 years, it was assumed that Mackay, who was diagnosed as a psychopath at 15, would never be released.
Now he has a new identity, is in an open prison near Bristol and enjoys day-release trips.
The Parole Board will want to know if he feels remorse and if his other murder ‘confessions’ were fantasies of a mentally-ill man.
Grandmother Adele Price, 89 (left), was strangled in Kensington, and widow Isabella Griffiths (middle), 87, was murdered in Chelsea. Mackay also confessed to a series of unsolved murders including 17-year-old Heiddi Mnilk (right)
Mackay – the subject of a new Amazon Prime documentary, Confessions Of A Psycho Killer – was jailed for strangling 87-year-old widow Isabella Griffiths in Chelsea and Adele Price, 89, in Kensington.
READ MORE: Britain’s ‘forgotten’ serial killer Patrick Mackay to be grilled by Parole Board chiefs to see if he is ‘safe’ to be freed from jail
He also killed Catholic priest Anthony Crean, 62, with an axe in Kent.
After his arrest, he said he had killed eight more: throwing au pair Heidi Mnilk off a train, killing Mary Hynes, 79, in 1973, knifing a woman and her little grandson in 1974, and pushing a homeless man off Hungerford bridge into the Thames.
He also said he clubbed tobacconist Frank Goodman, 62, to death, punched a woman of 92 to death and killed Ivy Davies, 42, in Southend.
Mackay later retracted his confessions to the eight killings and no one has been convicted.
Mr Tappenden said: ‘If Mackay is ever released, police should reopen these other deaths as cold cases.’
He said police probed Mackay’s claims, once taking him to a spot where he said he had discarded his shoes which had traces of his victim’s blood.
When the cases were brought to court, the judge felt that having been jailed for three killings, Mackay would never be freed so there was no need to proceed.
Last night Ivy Davies’s son Vic said: ‘He’s shown no remorse. If he is released, I don’t think the country will be safe.’
Former prison officer David Berridge, 62, who guarded him at Parkhurst on the Isle of Wight, said: ‘His unit held those deemed too dangerous even for Broadmoor.
‘Mackay was one of the most frightening I ever met.’
David Goodman, 75, wants Mackay prosecuted over the death of his father Frank. He said: ‘He should never go free.’
Mary Hynes’s nephew Michael said: ‘How can a man like Mackay ever be released? The cases against him should be investigated further.’
The Parole Board said: ‘Protecting the public is our top priority.’
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