The case of the 'Railway Killers' remains one of the most harrowing chapters in British criminal history. The sadistic partnership of John Francis Duffy and David Mulcahy terrorised women and children near railway stations across southern England throughout the 1980s, committing a series of brutal rapes and murders.
A Friendship Forged in Cruelty
The duo's bond began in their schooldays at Haverstock School in Chalk Farm, north London. Long before their crimes against people, they exhibited a shocking lack of empathy. In one infamous incident, they were discovered laughing while covered in blood after bludgeoning a hedgehog to death, having used it as a cricket ball.
Psychologists later identified this early brutality towards animals as a common trait in individuals who escalate to violence against humans. Of the pair, Mulcahy was noted as possessing the more violently aggressive tendencies.
The Descent into Terror
After leaving school, both men married and held jobs—Mulcahy as a plasterer and builder, Duffy as a carpenter for British Rail. Duffy's employment gave him intimate knowledge of the railway network that would become their hunting ground.
Their first known rape occurred in 1982 in North London. Over the next year, they assaulted and raped numerous women, with at least 18 victims identified. Their attacks, which paused briefly in 1983, resumed with increased ferocity.
In December 1985, they committed their first murder. 19-year-old Alison Day was abducted near Hackney Wick station, raped, and then strangled. Her body was weighted down in the River Lea. This was followed by the killing of 15-year-old Maartje Tamboezer in Surrey in April 1986, and 29-year-old Anne Locke, a newlywed, in Hertfordshire in May 1986.
Justice and a Policing Legacy
The scale of the crimes, which involved up to 40 rapes and three murders, triggered Operation Trinity, a major multi-force investigation. With DNA technology not yet widely available, detectives turned to pioneering psychological offender profiling.
Eminent behavioural scientist Professor David Canter provided a profile of the offender. Remarkably, 13 of his 17 observations matched John Duffy perfectly, leading to his arrest. Duffy was convicted in 1988 and later confessed to further crimes.
David Mulcahy evaded justice longer but was finally convicted in 2001 on three counts of murder, seven rapes, and conspiracy charges. He received three life sentences. The case cemented the use of psychological profiling in British policing, a legacy born from one of the nation's most disturbing criminal partnerships.
