‘Devil’s Disciple’ serial killer wanders the streets on day release

A serial killer who was once considered too dangerous to ever be released from prison walks through a bus station.

Patrick Mackay, 70, nicknamed ‘Devil’s Disciple’, was seen on day release from HMP Leyhill, an open prison in Gloucestershire.

Wearing a goatee, glasses and baseball cap, he wore what appeared to be prison-issued sweatpants as he enjoyed a leisurely stroll through the city center bus station.

Mackay, now known as David Groves, spent 47 years in prison for three murders, but previously admitted to committing eight more before retracting his confessions – and was recently put to the test by the parole board before he was paroled. was denied release due to drug use in prison.

He split open the head of Catholic priest Anthony Crean with an ax in March 1975 and is regarded as Britain’s longest-serving prisoner.

Front page Daily Mail November 1975

A victim’s son, Vic Davies, 67, said: ‘It makes no sense. There is clearly a desire to get him out of prison and it’s a huge gamble.’

Gareth Johnson, MP for Dartford in Kent, where the notorious criminal is originally from, said The sun that he was still young enough to kill again.

Born in 1952, Mackay grew up in an abusive household where he was regularly beaten by his alcoholic father.

At a young age, he started committing criminal acts, including arson, animal cruelty, and garden gnome theft.

Medical professionals determined that Mackay had psychopathic tendencies and he was dismembered at the age of 16. He was released four years later.

After his release, Mackay developed a fascination with Nazism and began calling himself “Franklin Bollvolt the First.” He filled his flat with Nazi memorabilia.

Mackay’s first victim identified was 87-year-old frail widow Isabella Griffith. He befriended the pensioner before strangling and stabbing her home in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, in 1974.

Thirteen months later, he murdered Adele Price at her home in Lowndes Square, Kensington. After entering the premises after asking Mrs. Price for a glass of water, Mackay passed her granddaughter on her way out without knowing it.

Mackay then killed Father Anthony Crean in a frenzied attack with his fists, a knife and an ax in the village of Shorne, Kent, near his own mother’s home. The mutilated body of the 63-year-old priest floated in a bath full of bloody water.

The serial killer was arrested two days later after a police officer recalled an earlier incident that took place several months earlier in which Mackay was arrested for stealing a £30 check from the priest. Like Mrs. Griffith, he befriended Father Anthony before breaking into his home.

Mackay killed Father Anthony Crean (pictured) in a frenzied attack with his fists, a knife and an ax in the village of Shorne, Kent

Murder victims Stephanie Britton (left) and her four-year-old grandson Christopher Martin (right). Mackay admitted to killing them before retracting his confession

Grandmother Adele Price, 89 (left), was strangled in Kensington, and widow Isabella Griffiths (right), 87, was murdered in Chelsea

Mackay, 70, has served 47 years in prison for three murders but previously admitted to eight more

Mackay’s fingerprints were taken on his arrest and they were found to match the scene of Mrs Price’s murder.

The serial killer initially confessed to the three murders, but then told police he had killed eight more from 1973 – many of them unsolved murders.

Mackay said his first kill was 17-year-old German au pair Heidi Mnilk in 1973, whom he stabbed on a train and then threw out the door of a South London tram.

Mackay also admitted to killing an unknown homeless person by pushing him into the Thames a year later. The body was never found.

He said he killed Stephanie Britton, 57, and her 4-year-old grandson Christopher Martin in January 1974.

The serial killer then claimed to have killed Frank Goodman later that year, saying he kicked him to death. Mackay also claimed to have killed Sarah Rodmell, 92, in Hackney in December 1974; pub owner Ivy Davies, 48, in Southend in 1975; and Mary Hynes in Kentish Town in 1974.

Mackay retracted the eight confessions before going on trial.

In 1975, he was convicted of the murders of Adele Price, Isabella Griffith, and Father Anthony Crean.

Although he was charged with five counts of murder, Mackay’s convictions were only three counts of diminished responsibility.

The other two cases – the murders of Frank Goodman and Mary Hynes – were allowed to go on file because there was insufficient evidence.