I was Hannibal the Cannibal Robert Maudsley's prison psychiatrist… here is why he should have been FREED from jail and not kept in a glass dungeon

A prison psychiatrist who worked with the UK's most dangerous prisoners has claimed that serial killer Robert Maudsley should be freed. 

Dr Bob Johnson, who believes the most violent inmates are a danger to society because of past trauma, says Maudsley should be given a job so he can pay the families of his victims compensation instead of being locked up.

Maudsley has been in solitary confinement in a specially-built glass cell since 1983 after killing three people in prison while serving a life sentence for murder. 

The twisted killer, who was given the nickname 'Hannibal the Cannibal' following false reports that he ate one of his victims' brains, is kept in the underground box, measuring 18ft by 14ft, for 23 hours a day, in the basement of Wakefield Prison.

He is guarded by four prison officers whenever he leaves his cell and holds the world record for most consecutive days in solitary.

Dr Bob Johnson believes the most violent prisoners are a danger to society because of past trauma 

Robert Maudsley (pictured), 70, is being held in a private underground cell beneath the general population of HMP Wakefield, after killing four men between 1974 and 1978

Maudsley (pictured) was last pictured more than 40 years ago for a documentary on his life in prison

Despite Maudsley previously telling his nephew he would kill again if released, Dr Johnson said it is 'ridiculous' that the 'very intelligent' Maudsley is locked up and added that he should be freed so he can pay the families of his victim's compensation. 

He told true crime YouTuber Shaun Attwood: ‘Robert Maudsley is a very cultured man, he likes Shubert like I do. 

He’s a very intelligent man.

‘One of the things I say about Maudsley is, “you have murdered somebody, you must pay”.

‘But I would employ Maudsley with a very high salary, because he’s got a good brain, and he should pay £10,000 a year to each family he has deprived a member of.

‘Not lock him up at the costing the state £500k a year, it’s ludicrous, he needs to pay compensation for what he’s done.

‘I’m sure if I’d been able to continue, he would have done that.’

Dr Johnson first met Maudsley in HMP Parkhurst in 1991 when the serial killer was in the hospital wing of the notorious prison.

He said of the meeting: 'I saw him on my first trip around, he was in a single cell and he was gaunt, a Moses type look. Long hair and miserable as sin.

'At that time, he was probably the most dangerous prisoner in the prison system. He was a serial killer and had been a serial killer and killed I think four times in prison.

'I noted him, when he was in Parkhurst in 1991, but he was on the hospital wing. 

'I’m passing through the hospital and he’s got these wire mesh things [in front of him] and we start chatting and he said, “if I had a friend who had this sort of problem, what would you do?"

'I said “I would talk to your friend, would you be interested?

'He said, "my friend might be interested, this sort of thing".'

After the initial meeting, Dr Johnson got permission to interview and treat Maudsley with therapy.

The psychiatrist explained how Maudsley was making 'sterling progress'.

He said: 'The prison cell was 10ft by 6ft, I sat on the end of the bed by the door and he’s at that end. 

Dr Johnson treated Maudsley in the 1990s and believes he should be freed and given a job so he pay the families of his victims compensation

Dr Bob Johnson made the comments on true crime youtuber Shaun Attwood's (pictured) show during an appearance alongside his wife Sue Johnson

Dr Johnson appeared on the youtube show alongside his wife Sue Johnson (pictured)

'He said “my hands are getting sweaty”, then I said, "if you frighten me, I can’t help you"... so he calmed down.

'He was making sterling progress, we were making incredible progress, we were unpacking his appalling childhood.

'He used to get very agitated and used to say, "I’ve got a protector and he’s coming in", so I’d say back off, but did so gently, and I'd say "do you want me to come back again?".

'We did monthly [sessions] at first and then we did gradually more. He eventually said, “I see these things quite differently from a month ago".'

Dr Johnson believes the most violent prisoners were born 'lovable' before they suffered horrific trauma at a young age and that they can be cured with the right treatment.

He said: 'These psychopaths, so-called, had all been born lovable, sociable and non-violent and something, which they couldn't tell you, had gone wrong, and eventually they could tell you.'

The psychiatrist explained his methods: 'What happens is, they put their trauma in a box and they are the only people who can open the box. If they open the box prematurely, that's the end of them - they're dead. 

'So, they don't open the box. My message to them is, "the box is empty you know". 

'If you can open the box and blow it away, it goes away completely but there are a whole lot of stuff that happens in between.'

Maudsley's brother Kevin previously told MailOnline that the killer is 'happy' behind bars and will never apologise for his crimes because 'they were all paedophiles'.

He added: 'The visits give him something to live for. He's just used to it.' 

Maudsley, seen as a child, is serving four life sentences in his glass cell which measures 18ft by 14ft

Dr Johnson  believes the trauma of the most violent offenders can be cured with the right type of therapy 

Kevin, 71, visits his brother once a month and sits in an adjoining cell, talking through metal bars.

He said: 'He's settled in - he wouldn't want to move. He'd rather be on his own than in the normal prison. He just likes it.

'I have visits. He's in one and we're in another, with bars. He seems happy enough in there.

'He seems alright, we have a good laugh. We just talk about things like outside - what's it like, what's going on, things like that.'

The violent prisoner has only been pictured once since his incarceration after being filmed for a documentary on him more than 40 years ago.

His brother's comments are in stark contrast to the battle the inmate has waged against the prison authorities in an effort to move him into better conditions.

In letters more than 20 years ago, he wrote: 'The prison authorities see me as a problem, and their solution has been to put me into solitary confinement and throw away the key, to bury me alive in a concrete coffin.

'It does not matter to them whether I am mad or bad. They do not know the answer and they do not care just so long as I am kept out of sight and out of mind.

'I am left to stagnate, vegetate and to regress; left to confront my solitary head-on with people who have eyes but don't see and who have ears but don't hear, who have mouths but don't speak.

'My life in solitary is one long period of unbroken depression.'

In 2021, he lost an appeal to spend Christmas with other people and was told that he will be incarcerated in his cell until he dies.

A year later, a Channel 5 documentary revealed the serial killer had told his nephew he vowed to kill again if he was released.

Maudsley's (pictured) brother Paul said he was 'happy' living in his glass cell underneath HMP Wakefield

At HMP Wakefield two weeks ago, paedophile murderer Roy Whiting, 65, was stabbed by another prisoner

Maudsley's nephew Gavin (pictured) told a documentary that he often visits the killer at Wakefield prison 

Maudsley's two-room cell is constructed from Perspex and has compressed cardboard furniture.

The sadistic killer spends every day in the Hannibal Lecter-style cell, sleeping on a concrete slab and using a toilet and sink which are bolted to the floor.  

Like his namesake, in the 1991 Hollywood blockbuster Silence of the Lambs, guards who have met Maudsley describe him as exceptionally intelligent, with a love of classical music, poetry and art.

Kevin, who is the only person to visit Maudsley alongside said his brother Paul and nephew Gavin, said he whiles away the days reading books on chess, and then playing against himself.

He said: 'He's more into his chess. He has books on it - he just reads books about chess. That's how he is now.

'He has his hour outside and then he goes back in.

'He plays against himself. I don't really know how he does it.

'He can go to the gym but he can't do anything because his knees are going.'

Maudsley was born in Toxteth, Liverpool in 1953 and was the fourth child of a local lorry driver.

But he had an unhappy start to life and was taken into care at a young age with his two brothers and sister after they were found to be victims of 'parental neglect'.

After several years in care, Maudsley and his siblings went back to live with his parents but there they were beaten severely and suffered 'physical abuse', his brother said.

During his last murder trial in 1979, the court heard that during his violent rages Maudsley believed his victims were his parents.

He said: 'When I kill, I think I have my parents in mind. If I had killed my parents in 1970, none of these people need have died. If I had killed them, then I would be walking around as a free man without a care in the world.'

Maudsley committed his first murder in 1974, at 21, after running away to London to work as a male prostitute as as a 16-year-old.

He brutally murdered paedophile John Farrell in Wood Green, after he showed pictures of children he had sexually abused.

Following the slaying, he handed himself in to police and immediately confessed his crime.

Maudsley was sent to Broadmoor Hospital, home to some of Britain's most violent criminals after he was deemed unfit to stand trial.

Retired prison officer Neil Samworth has revealed why he thinks Maudsley (pictured) should no longer be kept in solitary confinement

Maudsley was sent to HMP Wakefield (pictured) - nicknamed 'Monster Mansion' - after being convicted of manslaughter

At Broadmoor he was a 'model' prisoner until 1977 when he and fellow prisoner David Cheeseman locked themselves in a cell with child molester David Francis.

After a gruesome nine-hour torture ordeal, the callous pair dangled Francis's lifeless body for prison guards to see.

According to one guard, the man was discovered with his head 'cracked open like a boiled egg' with a spoon hanging out of it and part of the brain missing.

Maudsley was then sent to HMP Wakefield - nicknamed 'Monster Mansion' - after being convicted of manslaughter.

At Wakefield in 1978 Maudsley strangled and stabbed Salney Darwood, 46, who had been jailed for killing his wife.

He hid Darwood's body under bed before sneaking into the cell of paedophile Bill Roberts, 56, who had sexually abused a girl aged seven.

He stabbed Roberts, hacked his skull with a makeshift dagger and smashed his head against a wall.

It was only then that the brutal 'Hannibal' killer was sentenced to life imprisonment.

In 2000, Maudsley launched a legal bid to the courts requesting to be allowed to die.

He wrote a letter asking: 'What purpose is served by keeping me locked up 23 hours a day?

'Why even bother to feed me and to give me one hour's exercise a day? Who actually am I a risk to?'

In the letter he described that his current treatment and confinement had led him to look forward to a 'psychological breakdown,' mental illness and 'probable suicide'.

Maudsley is kept separated from other inmates inside Wakefield (pictured) after he killed three people while serving a sentence for murder

HMP Wakefield (pictured) holds some of Britain's most dangerous killers and notorious inmates

He went on to question why he couldn't have a pet budgie, promising to love it and 'not eat it'.

Also questioning why he couldn't have a television to 'see the world' and educate himself or music tapes.

He ended the letter saying: 'If the Prison Service says no then I ask for a simple cyanide capsule which I shall willingly take and the problem of Robert John Maudsley can easily and swiftly be resolved.'

Despite his depraved crimes, a veteran prison officer who has guarded some of Britain's most dangerous men told MailOnline that Maudsley should be moved out of solitary.

Neil Samworth, who served at HMP Strangeways in Manchester for more than a decade, said: 'I think it's wrong the way he has been treated. He is in total isolation and is not fair.

He added: 'I think his crimes are historic now and he represents no real danger to others. It's a bit like Charlie Bronson.

'Yes, he has had lots of fights in the past but he is an old man now.'