If you read about him in the news, you will find articles painting him as a human who should be locked away and never see the light of day again.

Below and lead image source, screenshot from: https://skdb.fandom.com/wiki/MAUDSLEY_Robert_John/Gallery

Below image source: Google search of the news tab for "Robert Maudsley"

Because of my fascination with the human mind and what causes a person to commit murder, I went looking for a documentary about him, and found this:

He is not a cannibal. He never ate any part of a human being. I do not deny that he committed murder, and I don't deny that he should likely not ever be in society again.

What caused him to kill?

He was physically and sexually abused as a young child by those closest to him, and he attempted suicide during his teenage years.

His first victim was a paedophile - someone showed him pictures of young children they had abused and he murdered him. He turned himself in to the police and admitted needing help for what he had done because he knew that murder is wrong. Nobody gave him the help he needed, and instead they put him in a prison cell with a convicted child molester.

His victims

Below quote source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Maudsley

• John Farrell, age 30, on 14 March 1974.

• David Francis, age 26, on 26 February 1977. Francis was a convicted child molester, sentenced to Broadmoor.

• Salney Darwood, age 46, on 29 July 1978. At the time of his death, Darwood was serving life for the manslaughter and severe domestic violence of his wife Blanche.

• William Roberts, age 56, on 29 July 1978. At the time of his death, Roberts was serving seven years for the sexual assault of a seven-year-old girl.

It begs the question, does Robert Maudsley deserve to spend the rest of his life in that box at the bottom of a prison? Were those murders the same as any other murder? Did he just perform a public service by ensuring those who were in jail never had the opportunity to commit those acts to the innocent again?

Did the system fail him?

People say that the purpose of imprisonment is "rehabilitation", now unless you are living under a rock, or you are talking about some "specialized" prison, rehabilitation is the last thing that happens. Prison systems don't rehabilitate, if anything, they "punish" and turn the person into a worse monster than when they went in - I am speaking primarily about the people who have got legitimate mental health issues which caused them to commit the acts that they went to prison for.

I worked a number of shifts in a mental hospital / prison. I loved working there, but I couldn't volunteer there anymore after I saw what was really going on. The system takes people and drugs them to the point that they are hardly able to utter two coherent words if they have an "outburst".

One of the patients that I got to know told me her story. She was what they classified an A-patient. She didn't have any outbursts, and was allowed the most "privileges". An example was being able to use the restroom without someone staring at her. She was jailed for murdering a man. She was a prostitute and he began to beat her up, so she slammed the bedside light into his head during the fight for what she deemed her life. She called an ambulance when she realized he needed help, and when the police got there, apparently the man she had defended herself from was a policeman himself. They beat her up further and made up lies about her, she ended up having a mental breakdown and that's how she ended up there, rather than a "prison".

Do I believe her story?

Yes. Sadly I do. Emotionally I couldn't take working there anymore, because the second I raised what the woman had told me, I was immediately removed from the ability to interact with patients. All I was allowed to do was prepare the drugs for them. I could no longer live with myself by feeding people medications that I believe they didn't need. It was my last shift there.

Would she be able to be integrated back into society? I am no expert, but I don't believe so. Why? The trauma she has experienced by the system has broken her to a point that I think if someone even made a loud unexpected noise or jumped out at her she would cause them physical harm.

Our systems continue to fail people who have severe mental health issues.

Would it even be possible to rehabilitate Robert Maudsley so that he could be in society?

Technically speaking, he has never murdered an innocent person. He didn't commit a sexual assault to a child, he hasn't injured anyone who did nothing wrong. Yet at the same time, people taking matters into their own hands doesn't tend to end well in society. If you look at vigilantes or the "kangaroo courts" that exist, that's not the way "civilized" people should behave. But were the murderers and rapists civilized when they committed their crimes?

Below quote source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Maudsley

If I had killed my parents in 1970, none of these people would have died.

How sad is it that he identifies the exact moment he believes his life would have been different? Very little is said about what justice is delivered to those who inflict the pain on children which causes them to grow up into a murder / criminal.

Nature vs. Nurture

I've tried for over a decade to write a medically solid article on which one it is. Or if it's both? To this day I am unable to say with any clarity what I believe. When I read about cases like this I feel as though it's nurture, then I look at other people who grew up in a "perfect" home, and I say it must be nature. Then I say it's both. But is it? Can nature and nurture have an impact? Yes. But then if it is both, one most have a more significant impact than the other. So which is it?

Why does it matter?

Thousands of lives could be saved if people were treated right as children. If children grew up in homes full of love. Thousands of lives would be saved if we were all just a little kinder, with more knowledge about mental health issues and disorders.

England has been the worst I've ever seen

In South Africa we do have people who are on the streets and homeless who have mental health issues, but it's nowhere near as prevalent as in England. People in England also seem to be hardened to the people with mental health issues, in the same way we in SA are hardened to crime or homelessness. When I've seen people in England who need help, I've tried to help and contact anyone - but their system has no room for them.

I even called 999 the one day for a man who had mental health issues and had taken an overdose of some drug. It took the ambulance over 45 minutes to arrive because there were no vehicles available. The police who turned up looked at the person as if they were expendable. It is so sad that those with mental health issues (even in a first world country) never get the help they really need.

Why did I write this post?

I'm hoping that it will give everyone another type of view on people. Some people need help. Some people have mental health conditions, psychiatric conditions and ailments which are as a result of legitimate issues. I'm just hoping to raise awareness that just because someone appears to be one way, doesn't mean they don't deserve to receive proper help.

I'm also writing this to hopefully shed some light on how the media can slant things by headlines, without going into the facts behind the case. Often we form an opinion on people based on a headline - we need to do research into the headline so we can form a wholesome conclusion in our own minds.