A British prisoner, Robert Maudsley, is reported to have broken the world record for the longest time spent in solitary confinement. Maudsley, 69, has spent nearly 45 of his 49 years behind bars in isolation, amounting to some 16,000 consecutive days, according to the Daily Mirror.
Maudsley, known within the prison system as 'Hannibal the Cannibal', spends 23 of every 24 hours in his cell. The previous record was held by US prisoner Albert Woodfox, who spent 43 years in isolation before his release and subsequent death in 2022.
Maudsley was jailed in 1974 for the murder of John Farrell, a client who had hired him as a sex worker and revealed a history of child abuse. While at Broadmoor psychiatric hospital, he allegedly tortured and killed a fellow patient who was a paedophile, earning him the 'cannibal' moniker, though he denies such claims.
In 1978, weeks after being transferred to HMP Wakefield, Maudsley killed two more inmates. He has been in solitary confinement ever since, much of it spent in a glass cage in the prison's cellar, likened to the cell of Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs.
In a letter more than a decade ago, Maudsley described his life in solitary as 'one long period of unbroken depression'. He has also spoken of intense physical abuse during his childhood, saying, 'All I remember of my childhood is the beatings.'
A Prison Service spokesperson stated that 'there is no such thing as solitary confinement in our prison system', adding that segregated prisoners are allowed time in the open air, visits, phone calls, and access to legal advice and medical care.
