Patrick Mackay, a Nazi-obsessed drifter dubbed the “Monster of Belgravia” (and “Devil’s Disciple”), stalked West London in 1974–75 and was ultimately convicted (manslaughter by diminished responsibility) of three killings – while long suspected in several more.
British Serial Killer
Last updated: October 22, 2025
Patrick Mackay | Monster of Belgravia
- Full name: Patrick David Mackay
- AKA: “Monster of Belgravia,” “Devil’s Disciple”
- Born: Sept 25, 1952 (Middlesex, England)
- Crimes (convicted): Manslaughter (diminished responsibility) of Isabella Griffith (84), Adele Price (89), Fr. Anthony Crean (1974–75)
- Apprehended: March 1975; Old Bailey pleas/convictions Nov 1975; life sentence with 20-year minimum
- Suspected scope: Frequently linked by police to more killings (confessed then retracted additional murders; cases left on file).
- Current status (2025): Still in custody; repeated parole reviews/denials over decades; reports of open-prison/day-release conditions in recent years, but no confirmed public release.
Classification & Characteristics
Patrick Mackay is best framed as an organized, predatory offender with a long, documented history of psychopathic traits and a fixation on Nazism – a persona he used to amplify menace and control. Offense patterns show targeting of elderly women in their homes (Chelsea/Knightsbridge) and a gratuitously violent axe killing of a Kent priest, Father Anthony Crean. Across the known cases, he blended grooming or doorstep pretexts (asking for water, feigned familiarity) with sudden, overwhelming violence, followed by theft of valuables – a mix of instrumental and expressive harms typical of high-risk urban home-invasion offenders.
Psychologically, Mackay’s record (diagnosed psychopathy by mid-teens; early violence; escalating theft/assaults) supports an offender who thrived on domination and transgression, rewarding himself with trophies and notoriety while oscillating between confession and retraction in additional suspected cases. His post-arrest confessions to further murders (later partly recanted) are consistent with attention-seeking psychopathic profiles, but only three killings were proven in court (manslaughter by diminished responsibility).
Case Summary | Patrick Mackay
Patrick David “Monster of Belgravia” Mackay is a Nazi-fixated, predatory offender who prowled West London in 1974–75, targeting the elderly in their own homes and, weeks later, killing a Kent priest with shocking brutality. The known victims are Isabella Griffith (84) and Adele Price (89) – both attacked in Chelsea/Knightsbridge after doorstep ruses – and Father Anthony Crean (63), hacked to death with an axe in Shorne, Kent. Mackay later boasted of additional murders and was long suspected in several unsolved attacks, but only these three cases were proven.
Arrested in March 1975, Mackay pleaded manslaughter by diminished responsibility to the three killings and received life imprisonment with a 20-year minimum. Diagnosed as psychopathic in adolescence, he has been repeatedly refused parole since becoming eligible in the mid-1990s. In recent years he has been held under open-prison/day-release conditions, but remains in custody as of 2025.
Timeline of Patrick Mackay →
- Feb 14, 1974 – Chelsea, London: Isabella Griffith (84) found strangled/stabbed in her flat; later linked to Mackay. Wikipedia+1
- Mar 1975 – Chelsea/Knightsbridge: Adele Price (89) killed in her home after the killer asked for water; Mackay’s fingerprints later match the scene. Wikipedia+1
- Mar 21, 1975 – Shorne, Kent: Fr. Anthony Crean (63) murdered with an axe in his cottage; attack discovered in a scene of extreme violence. Wikipedia
- Mar 1975 – Arrest: Mackay arrested; admits the Crean killing; links emerge to the Chelsea cases. Wikipedia
- Nov 1975 – Old Bailey: Pleads guilty to three counts of manslaughter (diminished responsibility) (Griffith, Price, Crean); life sentence with 20-year minimum. Wikipedia
- 1995 → present – Parole history: Eligible from 1995; repeatedly refused release; since 2017 held in open-prison conditions with day release provisions; May 2021 review found him not suitable for release; referral/new reviews reported in 2022–23; as of 2025, still in custody. Wikipedia+2belfasttelegraph.co.uk+2
- 2022–23 – Documentary coverage: Feature doc “Confessions of a Psycho Killer” released (Prime Video). Prime Video+1
→ Quick Answers
- Who: Patrick David Mackay – “Monster of Belgravia” / “Devil’s Disciple”; convicted (via diminished responsibility) in three killings in 1974–75: Griffith, Price, Crean. Wikipedia
- Where now: In custody (England & Wales prison estate); in open-prison conditions with day-release provisions since 2017; no full release granted. Wikipedia
- Current legal stage: Post-conviction, indeterminate life (20-year minimum long since served); parole reviews ongoing–May 2021 denial; later referrals/hearings reported 2022–23; no confirmed release as of 2025. belfasttelegraph.co.uk+2ITVX+2
- Appeals posture: N/A (historic sentence stands); present activity is parole risk assessment, not appellate litigation. belfasttelegraph.co.uk
- Mandate issued: N/A (UK context).
- Stay/Warrant/Window: N/A (no death penalty; custodial life sentence with parole consideration).
🕊️Victims of Patrick Mackay
- Isabella Griffith (84) – Found in her Chelsea flat (Feb 1974); strangulation and stabbing; body left staged and undiscovered for days. Crime+Investigation UK TV Channel
- Adele Price (89) – Killed in her Knightsbridge/Chelsea home (Mar 1975) after a doorstep pretext (“glass of water”); forensic link via fingerprints. Wikipedia+1
- Father Anthony Crean (63) – Roman Catholic priest, hacked with an axe in Shorne, Kent (Mar 21, 1975); scene discovered in a bath of blood. Wikipedia
Note: Police have long suspected Mackay in additional murders (some confessed, then retracted), but only these three resulted in courtroom convictions (via manslaughter/diminished responsibility). Wikipedia
Patrick Mackay | Monster of Belgravia
→ FAQs
The nickname came from the West London neighborhoods he prowled – Belgravia/Chelsea/Knightsbridge – and the shocking brutality of his crimes, which terrorized elderly residents in 1974–75.
Three. He pleaded manslaughter by diminished responsibility for the killings of Isabella Griffith (84), Adele Price (89), and Father Anthony Crean (63).
Yes, he claimed involvement in additional murders over the years but later retracted or muddied those statements; only the three cases above were proven in court.
Life imprisonment with a 20-year minimum (set in 1975). He has faced repeated parole reviews and remains in custody (open-prison/day-release conditions reported in recent years, but no full release granted).
Patrick Mackay | The Monster of Belgravia
Patrick Mackay suffered from tantrums and extreme fits of anger. He indulged in animal cruelty and arson. Patrick bullied younger children, stole from elderly women’s homes as well as people in the street. He also attempted to kill his mother, his aunt and another young boy at one point.
Patrick Mackay is a British serial killer who confessed to murdering thirteen people in London, Essex and England in the mid 1970’s. He is the UK’s longest serving prisoner and is considered one of their most prolific serial murderers. He confessed to murdering all thirteen people between 1973 and 1975.
Patrick Mackay attempted to set fire to a Catholic church. Because of such incidents, he spent his teenage years in and out of mental homes and institutions. At 15, he was diagnosed as a psychopath by one psychiatrist – who predicted Patrick Mackay would grow up into a ‘cold, psychopathic killer’.
The Story
Patrick Mackay | The Boy Who Carried a Storm
Before London knew his name, there was a boy who learned that power could be taken rather than earned. Patrick David Mackay grew up inside a house where love had a temper and the nights were loud. His father, Harold – violent and alcoholic – beat him, then died suddenly when Patrick was ten. Grief did not soften him; it calcified.
In its place came tantrums that had their own gravity: cruelty to animals, fires set for the thrill of watching the sky change color, thefts from pensioners and strangers, ambushes at doorways. He tried to kill a boy. He turned on his own – his mother and an aunt. He even tried to burn a Catholic church. Institutions spun like revolving doors. By fifteen, a psychiatrist wrote the line that would shadow every file: psychopath – a prediction that he would grow into “a cold, psychopathic killer.” But, in 1972, they let him out again.
A Mask for the City
Patrick Mackay drifted between London and Kent with a practiced smile – sleeping rough, taking short lets, appearing wherever the money was old and the locks were new. He wore a Nazi fixation like a costume because menace moves people out of your way. He learned how to make himself small until he filled a doorway, how to speak softly until the moment called for speed and force.
The Count of Confessions
What he later told detectives would swell into a legend. Thirteen murders, he said – across London, Essex, and Kent between 1973 and 1975. Working from those admissions, police linked him to nine unsolved deaths. He was charged in five, convicted (via diminished responsibility) in three, and left two “on file.” Later, investigators would conclude that at least one of those ‘back-burner’ cases was indeed his. The ledger was ugly: thirteen confessed, nine plausibly linked, three the law could carry.
1973: The Descent Begins
By his own account, he drowned a tramp in the Thames – a claim that sits like a stone in the river of rumors. In July 1973, he said he threw Heidi Mnilk from a train near New Cross. That same month he beat Mary Hynes to death in her Kentish Town flat. The drift had found a rhythm, and the rhythm kept time with harm.
1974: A City on Edge
January opened colder and crueller. Stephanie Britton and her four-year-old grandson were stabbed at Hadley Green in Hertfordshire. Later that same month, a homeless man went off Hungerford Bridge into the black water.
In February, Isabella Griffith (84) – stabbed and strangled in her Chelsea home. A 62-year-old tobacconist – bludgeoned. Sarah Rodwell (92) – beaten to death on her Hackney doorstep.
Before the year closed, Ivy Davies was murdered with an axe. Some of these names would remain allegations born of confession; some would be proof. All of them trace the shape of a city learning to look twice through the peephole.
Patrick Mackay | The Monster of Belgravia
The Doorstep Ruse of Patrick Mackay
His approach was intimate in the worst way: a knock, a gentle voice, a small request – a glass of water, a quick word, may I use your phone? – and then the turn. Once invited in, he collapsed the world to the size of a hallway, stripped it of witnesses and made speed and force do the rest. The elderly were targets because they lived alone, because their guard was good manners, because kindness is a habit and he knew how to weaponize it.
The Drifter and the Priest
In 1973 near Shorne, Kent, he met Father Anthony Crean, a Catholic priest who tried lenience where punishment had failed. Mackay repaid him by stealing – petty thefts first, then a forged cheque. Arrest followed; a court ordered him to pay the money back. He didn’t. He slipped back to London with grievance in his pocket and the year gathered speed.
March 1975: Belief Meets Reprisal
On March 21, 1975, he returned to the priest’s cottage with an axe. What happened there is the kind of scene that stains the inside of a reader’s skull: Father Crean hacked, dragged to the bath, and left to bleed out while the water turned cruel.
Two days later, the cuffs closed. In the interview rooms David swung between boast and denial, adding bodies to his legend and then muddying the map. Detectives cross-checked; families waited. In the end, the court would only count what could stand on paper and oath.
What the Courts Could Carry
He was charged with five murders; two were dropped for lack of proof. In November 1975, he pleaded manslaughter by diminished responsibility to three killings – Isabella Griffith (84), Adele Price (89), and Father Anthony Crean (63) – and received life imprisonment with a 20-year minimum.
The rest of his claimed body count lived in binders and margins: confessions that matched scenes, scenes that lacked the last ounce of proof. Even so, authorities would later confirm his responsibility in at least one of the additional cases left “on file.”
The Longest Watch | Patrick Mackay
Patrick Mackay has been one of the UK’s longest-serving prisoners, eligible for parole since 1995 and refused again and again. The adolescent diagnosis never left the room; every hearing read like an echo. In July 2022, his case was referred once more to the Parole Board, and reports placed him at HM Prison Leyhill, an open prison near Bristol, the kind of placement that can presage release. Christmas came and went. Reviews churned. As of now, he remains in custody, a warning scrawled in the margin of his own history.
The Names We Keep
Beneath the boasts and the courtroom language are the rooms where it happened: a Chelsea flat quieted forever; a Knightsbridge doorstep that never felt safe again; a Kent cottage where a priest kept his books and lost his life.
Coda: Legend vs. Proof
Mackay styled himself “Monster of Belgravia,” “Devil’s Disciple” – labels that promise a mythology. The record is simpler and harder: three killings proven, others confessed, some linked, many feared. A boy who carried a storm grew into a man who learned to knock like a neighbor. London, in turn, learned to bolt the door – and to remember that sometimes the danger arrives with a smile and a story about a glass of water.
source: murderpedia | wikipedia | dailymail.co.uk | kentlive.news | thesun | echonews |
📚 Additional Resources
- Wikipedia Patrick Mackay overview (bio, convictions, confessions, case scope). en.wikipedia.org
- Crime+Investigation Case file (victim details, MO, scene specifics). crimeandinvestigation.co.uk+1
- BBC Select Confessions of a Psycho Killer (documentary summary on Mackay). bbcselect.com
📚 Further Reading / Watching
- John Lucas, Britain’s Forgotten Serial Killer: The Terror of the Axeman (Pen & Sword).
- Pete Dove, The Devil’s Disciple – Serial Killer Patrick Mackay.
- (Optional extra context pages: Goodreads/Pen & Sword listings.) goodreads.com+1
- Confessions of a Psycho Killer (feature doc on Mackay) – Prime Video (UK/IE availability). primevideo.com+1
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BEYOND THE GAVEL – Patrick D. Mackay
Roll Card – Snapshot
- Status: In custody (England & Wales prison estate); indeterminate life sentence imposed Nov 1975 with a 20-year minimum (manslaughter by diminished responsibility on 3 killings).
- Where held (recent years): Reportedly HMP Leyhill (Category D / open prison) as part of progression toward potential release; open prisons are lower security with day-release provisions.
- Notable label: Frequently described as one of the UK’s longest-serving prisoners; parole eligibility since 1995 with repeated refusals. Wikipedia
Docket Map – Proceedings (Condensed)
- Nov 1975 – Old Bailey: Pleads manslaughter (diminished responsibility) to the killings of Isabella Griffith (84), Adele Price (89), and Fr. Anthony Crean (63) → life with 20-year minimum; two additional murder counts left “on file.”
- 1995 → present – Parole horizon: Becomes parole-eligible; repeated denials follow over decades.
- 2017: Moved to open-prison conditions with day release provisions (still subject to Parole Board).
- 2020–May 2021: Parole review postponed, then denied in May 2021 (remains in open conditions). Wikipedia
- July 26, 2022: Case referred again to the Parole Board; regional TV report notes potential release discussions. ITVX
- 2023–2025: Continued coverage (documentary & news) while custody continues; no verified public notice of release as of 2025. Prime Video+1
Case Posture – Now
- Appeals: Historic conviction; no active appellate litigation. Parole reviews are the operative legal process.
- Risk/placement: Open-prison placement (Leyhill) is consistent with late-stage sentence progression, not a guarantee of release. Wikipedia
Offence Record – What the File Shows
- Convicted victims (1974–75): Griffith, Price, Crean (elderly-targeting home intrusions; axe murder of priest in Kent).
- Confessions & linkages: Mackay confessed to 13 killings; police linked him to nine, charged five, secured three convictions; two cases left on file. Later inquiry indicated at least one of those “on-file” cases was his.
- Key evidence: Fingerprint match to Price; stolen items from Chelsea/Belgravia found in his room; prior grievance/history with Fr. Crean. Wikipedia
Execution Window | Monitoring (UK)
- N/A. The UK has no death penalty; supervision is through Parole Board review cycles and prison-category progression. Wikipedia
Source Pack
- Wikipedia (overview & parole timeline): Patrick Mackay (case summary; parole progression; open-prison move). Wikipedia
- ITV News Meridian (Jul 26, 2022): Britain’s longest-serving prisoner could be released before Christmas (Parole Board referral coverage). ITVX
- BBC Select / Prime Video: Confessions of a Psycho Killer (documentary context on the case & confessions). BBC Select+1
- HMP Leyhill (context): Category D/open-prison profile and role in late-stage placements. Wikipedia
