Patrick Mackay was jailed for life in November 1975 after pleading guilty at the Old Bailey to three counts of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. The court heard that he had strangled two elderly women and had killed a Roman Catholic priest, Father Anthony Joseph Crean of Shorne, in Kent, with an axe. Two further charges of murder were ordered to lie on file for lack of evidence, the Press Association reported in 2021.
Mackay's convictions are for manslaughter, not murder. The murder charges left on file were never tried. Other deaths linked to him over the years are matters of admission or suspicion, not of any court finding.
His case was the subject of a short book published in 1976, Psychopath: The Case of Patrick Mackay, by the journalists Tim Clark and John Penycate. A review of that book by the psychiatrist David J. Barry, of the University of Rochester Medical Center, appeared in the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law in 1977. Much of what is known of his early life comes from that review's summary of the book.
According to Barry's review, Mackay's father was a cruel and socially isolated heavy drinker, and his parents' weekend fights were regular enough that the police were often called to the house. Neighbors remembered the boy as unkempt, a child who lied, stole, bullied other children and did badly at school.
His father died when Patrick was ten. After that, the review says, the boy developed rages he could not control, was cruel to animals and set fires. At 11 he appeared before the juvenile court in Dartford on 21 charges. Through his adolescence he drank, flew into rages, attacked people without provocation, held jobs poorly, made few relationships and was arrested often. He was placed in reform schools and then in a psychiatric hospital, where, the review notes, he was treated by the same psychiatrist who had treated his father.
At 15, according to the review, Mackay was diagnosed as a "cold psychopathic killer." At 16 he was committed as a psychopath, for an indefinite term, to one of Britain's three special hospitals.
His mother, the review says, petitioned the Review Tribunal again and again for his release into her care, though at other times she rejected him. After about two years in the hospital he was released and went back to live with her. He soon wore out his welcome there.
Mackay moved to London. The review describes an unsteady friendship with a family whose sons were about his age, and a period in which he robbed elderly women in the street.
The 1976 book, as Barry summarized it, drew much of its interest from public anger in Britain at what the reviewer called the "dual failure" of the system: it had neither treated Mackay successfully nor kept him contained. A young man diagnosed as a psychopath at 15 and committed to a special hospital had been released, and was later charged with killing three people.
Father Anthony Joseph Crean was a Roman Catholic priest from Shorne, a village in Kent. He had once befriended Mackay, according to Barry's review of the 1976 book. His death was one of the three covered by Mackay's manslaughter convictions, and the court heard that Mackay killed him with an axe.
The review says Mackay was caught through detective work shortly after Father Crean's death, and that he was 21 when he was arrested. Once in custody, by the review's account, he admitted five homicides. The book's authors and the police suspected him of six more. None of those further deaths was ever tried.
Mackay's case was heard at the Old Bailey in London. In November 1975 he was convicted of three counts of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, the Press Association reported in 2021, covering the deaths of the two elderly women and of Father Crean. Barry's review describes the guilty pleas to manslaughter as the result of plea bargaining. Two charges of murder were ordered to lie on file for lack of evidence; they were never tried.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment.
According to Barry's review, several senior psychiatrists diagnosed Mackay as a psychopath. One psychiatrist from Broadmoor disagreed and argued that he was fully responsible for what he had done. The review faulted the 1976 book for treating the defense of diminished responsibility only briefly in its final chapter, and for presenting the psychiatric evaluations in the same superficial way.
The reviewer judged the book to be a slight piece of work, awkwardly written, and said its authors stopped short of firm criticism of the people who had failed Mackay early on or of those who released him. He also recorded that the British tabloid press had covered the case under lurid headlines.
Mackay spent the first 27 years of his life sentence in Category A conditions because of concerns about his behavior, the Press Association reported in 2021, citing the Parole Board.
In November 2017 he was moved to an open prison. There he began working with professionals and was gradually allowed out into the community on temporary release. Those releases were limited, and they were suspended when the coronavirus pandemic began.
In May 2021 the Parole Board for England and Wales announced that it would not direct Mackay's release. It was his second review by a Parole Board panel, according to the Press Association report.
The panel considered a dossier of more than 1,700 pages. It heard from his probation officer in the community, the official supervising his case in prison, a prison psychologist, a medical professional, and an independent psychologist commissioned by his legal team. The independent psychologist supported his release. The other witnesses said he needed more testing in open conditions first.
The board listed the risk factors present at the time of his offending. They included his early life experiences, his inability to control extreme emotions, his failure to manage certain aspects of his personality, his willingness to use violence and weapons, his difficulty forming relationships, and what the board called his unhelpful ways of thinking.
"The panel was not satisfied that Mr Mackay was suitable for release," the board said. It recommended that he remain in the open estate, and it urged "a very cautious approach" to his rehabilitation. He would be eligible for another parole review in due course.
As of May 2021, Mackay was serving his life sentence in an open prison, with the Parole Board recommending that he stay there.
Proven by his own guilty pleas, and final: the manslaughter, on the grounds of diminished responsibility, of two elderly women in London and of Father Anthony Crean in Kent.
Charged and never tried: two counts of murder, ordered to lie on file in 1975 for lack of evidence. They are not convictions.
Admitted but never tried: Barry's 1977 review says Mackay admitted five homicides. The review does not list them, and it does not say whether the five include the three covered by his convictions.
Suspected but never charged: the same review says the 1976 book's authors and the police suspected him of six further deaths. No court has made any finding on them.
Details that differ between sources: the Press Association's 2021 report describes his life sentence as mandatory, while the review of the 1976 book describes a negotiated plea to manslaughter followed by a life sentence. The 2021 report gives his age at the time of the parole decision as 65.
Childhood: grows up in Kent; his father dies when he is ten.
Age 11: appears before the Dartford juvenile court on 21 charges.
Adolescence: reform schools, then a psychiatric hospital.
Age 15: diagnosed as a psychopath.
Age 16: committed for an indefinite term to one of Britain's special hospitals.
About two years later: released to his mother's home; later moves to London.
Shortly after the death of Father Anthony Joseph Crean of Shorne, Kent: Mackay, aged 21, is arrested and admits five homicides. He has been in custody since 1975.
November 1975: pleads guilty at the Old Bailey to three counts of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility; life imprisonment; two murder charges left on file.
1976: Tim Clark and John Penycate publish Psychopath: The Case of Patrick Mackay.
1977: David J. Barry reviews the book in the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law.
First 27 years of the sentence: held in Category A conditions.
November 2017: moved to an open prison; temporary releases begin.
Start of the coronavirus pandemic: temporary releases suspended.
May 2021: Parole Board refuses release and recommends he remain in open conditions.