Notorious killer finds love after 51 years in jail

BRITAIN'S longest-serving prisoner, a quadruple killer dubbed Hannibal the Cannibal, has found love while behind bars.

- BY JEREMY ARMSTRONG

Robert Maudsley, 71, is considered so dangerous he has spent 42 out of 51 years in solitary confinement in a purpose-built clear cell.

For the past five years he has been exchanging letters with Loveinia MacKenney, who he describes as his “sweet girlfriend”.

The pair - whose favourite songs are Someday We'll be Together by Diana Ross and Catch the Wind by Donovan - have never met in person, and possibly never will.

Their bond began when mum-of-one Loveinia, 69, felt an instant connection with the murderer after seeing the 2020 TV documentary The Killer in My Family.

She says: “I have so much love for him. I know that is unbelievable given that we have not spoken and have not met.

“People see him as a monster, they call him Hannibal the Cannibal. I know that he is far from that.

“Bob is a loving and caring person and the letters show that.”

Maudsley was sent to Broadmoor hospital in 1974 after strangling child abuser John Farrell, 30.

In 1977 he and another patient killed a third man inside Broadmoor.

Convicted of manslaughter, Maudsley was sent to Wakefield prison in West Yorkshire, where in 1983 he killed two fellow prisoners and was said to have told a guard: “There'll be two short on the roll call.”