Robert Maudsley

Moral Gray area, or...

Where were we? Oh yes, Maudsley is settling into his new home at Broadmoor, and he actually likes it a good deal, interestingly enough. Quick recap for those that missed the first post:

Maudsley entered Broadmoor in 1974 following his conviction for strangling and stabbing Farrell, a crime he confessed to after claiming Farrell showed him pictures of abused children, which was a trigger that tied to his own childhood trauma. The court accepted his plea of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, supported by psychiatric evaluations highlighting his history of abuse, drug addiction, suicide attempts, and auditory hallucinations urging him to kill his parents. Broadmoor, located in Crowthorne, Berkshire, was one of three high-security psychiatric hospitals in England (alongside Ashworth and Rampton), designed for patients deemed criminally insane or too volatile for regular prisons.

All right, everyone caught up? Awesome, moving on.

Due to the fact that Robert had many issues that made him not suitable for regular prison, though he pled guilty, Broadmoor wasn’t exactly a cakewalk. It’s still a prison, and unlike normal prison, where you get a sentence of say, ten years, or something, you don’t get that with psychiatric hospitals. You are there until you are no longer a danger to yourself or others, and have to be cleared by the clinicians there. Your end date is ambiguous, and you may never get a chance to leave despite what you might have done, or not done, as I discussed in a previous post regarding Broadmoor that you can find here:

Maudsley’s daily existence at Broadmoor would have been regimented yet isolating. Patients were housed in individual rooms or small wards, depending on their behavior, with access to communal areas like day rooms or exercise yards under strict watch. He’d have eaten institutional food, basic fare like porridge, stew, or bread, and worn standard-issue clothing, possibly a mix of hospital garb and personal items. Interaction with staff (psychiatrists, nurses, orderlies) and other patients was a constant, but his troubled past and volatile nature may have made him wary and withdrawn.

Treatment-wise, he may have received antipsychotic medications, common drugs of the era like chlorpromazine or haloperidol, to manage any lingering hallucinations or aggression, though compliance isn’t well-documented. Therapy was limited; the 1970s psychiatric approach leaned heavily on sedation and observation rather than trauma-focused counseling, which wasn’t yet mainstream. Maudsley’s deep-seated rage and distrust of authority, rooted in his abusive childhood, likely made him a challenging patient.

Fast-forward to 1977, and Robert had become acquainted with a man named, David Cheeseman, and the two were friendly. However, he also becomes aware of another patient, named David Allen Francis. Francis was a twenty-eight-year-old convicted pedophile. Robert had a conversation with Cheeseman, and told him that he did not like Francis due to him being a pedophile. He also states that he wants to kill Francis. Robert tells Cheesman that he has a plan, and Cheeseman tells him that he’s all in, and they proceed to target Francis.

Now, keep in mind, they are in a psychiatric facility for the criminally insane. The staff aren’t just leaving around implements of murder for their patients to happen upon. They don’t even get regular flatware, and there aren’t any knives in the kitchen. They get plastic flatware, and no knives there either. Just plastic spoons and forks. But that didn’t stop Robert. He simply kept one of the plastic spoons, it being missing was somehow overlooked by the staff, and he proceeds to file it down into a sharp point. Okay, you might be thinking, he’s going to shank him in the lunch line and Cheeseman is going to run interference by being a distraction. Nope, but I can see why you would think so. No, no, no, that isn’t at all what they did.

It is now February of 1977, and it is go time. Francis’ time is up, he just doesn’t know it yet. The day begins with a football game (soccer for those of you from the states), and all three, Maudsley, Cheeseman, and Francis were all out there playing. The game ends, and the three head back inside. While on the way back inside, Robert asks a staffer to open up a changing room, and the staff member agreed to do so. All three men went inside the changing room. This is a secure facility, however, so one is allowed into these rooms unsupervised, meaning that letting Maudsley in did not in any way mean privacy. That would be the case, if Maudsley didn’t move with lightening speed, slamming the door in the staffer’s face. Then he quickly barricaded the door, preventing anyone from getting inside.

Interesting side note here, door in facilities like Danvers in the States, were built, so all doors swung out:

The reason for that, was exactly this situation. It was to prevent patients from barricading doors, disallowing for staff to gain entry. Back to Broadmoor, which apparently did not the memo.

Maudsley and Cheeseman immediately attacked Francis. However, this was not to be a short and swift attack. No, not at all. That isn’t what they planned. This will be a nine-hour ordeal of brutal torture. Robert had ripped out some wire from a record player. He used this to bind Francis, rendering him helpless. He then became a human punching bag, with Maudsley and Cheeseman taking turns kicking, punching, slapping him. After a long while of this occurring, they started to slam his head over and over into the floor.

In the door of the changing room, there was a window through which the staff had to watch helplessly as they tried to get the door open to save this patient, but to no avail. They could do nothing to help him, and Maudsley knew it. After beating him mercilessly, they then took out their knives (yes, apparently Cheeseman had one as well), and started to stab him repeatedly everywhere. The staff outside had to listen to him screaming in agony, and begging them to stop, but still could do nothing about it.

After nine hours, it is now around eight in the evening, Francis finally perished. Robert strangled him. His body was held aloft for the staff to see it through the window. After putting it back down, Robert removed the barricade, and opened the door for those outside, and walked out. He had accomplished what he intended to. He was restrained, and the staff rushed into the room to the grisly scene that awaited them.

Apparently, not only had Francis been strangled, the staff reported that his head had been cracked open like an egg. This is also where the rumor began that Robert had eaten part of his brain, though this is thought to be legend, not reality. This rumor stemmed from the staff reporting that one of the spoons was lodged in Francis’ brain, that pieces of his skull littered the ground, and that part of his brain was missing. However, I would say, how would you know that though? Head injuries like that aren’t going to leave a perfect brain. If he was hit hard enough to break off pieces of his skull, his brain is not going to be intact. Because of this, he became knowns as, “The Brain Eater”, and also, “Spoons”. Fascinating origin story for those nicknames. Just to note, he didn’t actually eat any of Francis’ brain. This is one of those events, that the lie is more entertaining than the truth, so the story persists.

The aftermath of this murder was a trial. Despite not being competent to stand trial for the first murder, he was deemed competent for this one. This seems a bit weird to me. If he murdered someone on the outside, and it was deemed that he was incompetent to stand trial… why would he suddenly become competent when he is in the psychiatric hospital? Make it make sense. I guess it’s some kind of magic.

Anyway, on to the trial. Robert had absolutely no remorse for his crimes. He still felt well and justified in his actions, and saw no reason to feel any sort of negativity for what he had done. He still believed that David Francis was a pedophile and therefore was meant to die. At the trial, he is found guilty of manslaughter, and I just have to say… really? Manslaughter? I mean, charging him in the first place when he was sent to a mental hospital because he was incompetent regarding the first trial, but if we are going to be charging anything… shouldn’t it be, oh… I don’t know… murder? Not manslaughter, murder. I don’t think if you are going to charge the dude, that you then lessen the charges. They tortured that guy to death, and they’re like, well… we kind of agree. Screw the pedophile.

If you are going to charge, charge appropriately, is all I am saying.

So, Maudsley is given life in prison for this, and you know that he isn’t going to be able to stay at Broadmoor. He kind of mucked up that whole situation, so they really don’t want him back. Nope, he’s going to big boy prison now. Do you think that this is where his story ends? That he gets to big boy prison and is like, “Oh, it’s all good. I’m cured now. Yay, me!”? No, now it doesn’t go like that, and we will learn more about that, next week.

See you then…