British serial killer dubbed ‘Hannibal the Cannibal’ spends 50th Christmas behind bars after spending more time in solitary confinement than any other criminal in the world

A British serial killer has served his 50th Christmas behind bars after spending more time in solitary confinement than any other criminal in the world.

Notorious killer Robert Mawdsley, 70, has now spent 50 years in a prison cell, including 45 years in solitary, which investigators say would be a world record. The mirror.

The criminal, nicknamed ‘Hannibal the Cannibal’ after false reports that he had eaten one of his victim’s brains, was just 21 when he was jailed for the murder of 30-year-old John Farrell in 1974.

Just four years later, he was placed in solitary confinement after killing three people in a prison.

He now spends his days in a 5 by 5 meter cell, which was built especially for him in 1983 and is protected by bulletproof glass.

The ‘Hannibal’ killer has been locked up in HMP Wakefield, where he murdered three of his victims while behind bars

Mawdsley was declared unfit for trial following the murder of Farrell, who was allegedly a child molester.

He was sent to Broadmoor Hospital in Berkshire in 1977, where he took a fellow inmate hostage before stabbing him to death with a plastic spoon.

Rumors swirled that Mawdsley had eaten part of his brain after the victim was found with the spoon in his ear.

Mawdsley was then sent to Wakefield Prison in West Yorkshire, where he murdered two more inmates, ending up in solitary confinement in 1978.

In a Channel 5 documentary HMP Wakefield: Evil Behind Bars, Liverpool’s Maudsley’s cousin Gavin revealed how his soft-spoken, ‘well-read’ uncle is content to be cut off from the rest of the world.

He added: ‘[If you] place him with rapists and pedophiles. I know because he told us he’s going to kill as many pedophiles as he can. “I don’t condone what he did, but…the people he killed were really bad people.”

Mawdsley has previously said he is “happy and content in solitude,” but also once described spending most of his day in his small space as “like being buried alive in a coffin.”

He has been repeatedly rejected from requests to spend time with other people and spend his days in a specially built cell.

Mawdsley (pictured) was declared unfit to stand trial after killing Farrell, who was allegedly a child molester

He has been categorized as Britain’s most dangerous killer and spends his days at HMP Wakefield (pictured)

In 2021, he lost an appeal to spend Christmas with other people and was told he will be locked in his ‘glass coffin’ until his death. He also has a table and chair made of compressed cardboard.

In the first days of his captivity, the killer wrote to newspapers campaigning for better treatment.

In 2000, Maudsley launched a legal bid in court asking to be allowed to die.

He wrote a letter asking: ‘What use is it if I stay locked up 23 hours a day? Why would you even bother feeding me and giving me an hour of exercise a day? To whom am I actually a risk?’

He then wondered why he couldn’t have a pet parakeet, promising that he would love it and “wouldn’t eat it.”

Mawdsley is believed to be Britain’s longest-serving prisoner, after Moors killer Ian Brady, who served 51 years. He died in 2017.

US prisoner Albert Woodfox, who died last year, held the world record for solitary confinement at 43 years before being released in 2016.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice told The Mirror that ‘there is no such thing as solitary confinement in our prison system’.

They added: ‘Some offenders will be segregated if they pose a risk to others. They get outdoor time every day, visits, phone calls and access to legal advice and medical care just like everyone else.”