'Hannibal the Cannibal' Robert Maudsley locked in glass cell behind '17 steel doors'

Dubbed one of the UK's most dangerous men, an infamous serial killer has been confined in a Hannibal Lecter-style glass cage for years.

Robert Maudsley, 70, has spent 45 years in solitary confinement due to the threat he poses to other inmates. Initially imprisoned for murder, he shockingly killed three fellow prisoners while incarcerated.

The chilling details of his life behind bars are revealed in a new book, Inside Wakefield Prison: Life Behind Bars in the Monster Mansion, penned by Jonathan Levi and Emma French.

The authors wrote: "Today, in Wakefield Prison, Maudsley is kept in confinement for twenty-three hours of the day. Everything in his cell is made of cardboard, and you have to go through 17 steel doors to get to it."

His living conditions bear a stark resemblance to the fictional cell of Anthony Hopkins' character, Hannibal Lecter, in the film Silence of the Lambs. It's earned Maudsley the nickname "Hannibal the Cannibal".

Speaking to a prison contact named Pete, who knows Maudsley well, the authors learned more about the notorious "strongbox" where he is held.

Pete commented on the grim reality of Maudsley's existence, saying: "The sad thing is, if he were living with someone else, he'd kill somebody else. It'd have been more humane to just put him down."

He expressed certainty that Maudsley would commit murder again if ever released. Levi and French also explore the various accounts of the "Perspex cell" myth, acknowledging that "every contributor tells a different story".

They wrote: "Pete, for example, described the box in the following terms: 'Metal with thick Perspex around them that looked out into the middle, and there was a metal door with thick Perspex on it and then an outer cell door."

"They were boxes. As he described it to us, it was all completely see-through, except from the front of the cell: 'You could lift the flap up and look in.

"But you could walk in between the two (there were two of these box-like cells) and there were thick Perspex and metal framing as well. They were secure units; they couldn't get out'."

A source also told the authors that the strongbox was a cell with a "concrete plinth", an "industrial blanket" and an "industrial dress" in which prison staff would place him.

If Maudsley "kicked off and assaulted somebody", they would place him in the strongbox "until he'd calmed down". He would sometimes also "ask the SO to go in" if he "felt his head were going".

Maudsley's cell or "dungeon" has been reported as "bulletproof", 18ft by 15ft and with a "concrete slab for a bed". It is also said to be decked out with bulletproof windows and a cardboard table and chair.

Maudsley, from Liverpool, was jailed for strangling child molester John Farrell in Wood Green, London, after the paedophile showed Maudsley pictures of children he had sexually abused.

In 1977, Maudsley and fellow inmate David Cheeseman barricaded themselves in a cell with another child molester, David Francis, subjecting him to nine hours of torture.

This horrific act resulted in Maudsley being convicted of manslaughter and subsequently transferred to HMP Wakefield.

His violent streak continued into 1978 when he strangled and stabbed Salney Darwood, aged 46, before turning his attention to paedophile Bill Roberts, 56. He stabbed Roberts and then brutally smashed his head into a wall.