A forgotten serial killer who slayed a priest with an axe and even killed his own grandmother may soon be walking the streets freely.
Patrick 'Pyscho' Mackay is one of the UK's longest-serving inmates who confessed murdering up to eleven people, including a four-year-old boy.
Names such as West, Shipman, Sutcliffe, Nilsen, Hindley, Brady, have all dominated the headlines in recent years however, in 1975 it was Mackay that left the UK horrified following a spree of gruesome murders across London and Kent.
Remarkable photos show the various demented faces of the criminal named 'the most dangerous man in Britain' at his court trial, a hacked-up body of a priest in a bathtub, and the cold dead eyes of a deranged killer staring directly into the camera.
Portrait of a psychopath: Mackay (left)in a photobooth with chicken he took from his mother, while he poses in a photobooth again (right)
From left to right: Harold, Patrick, Marion and Ruth Mackay at home in the 1950s. Behind the scenes, Harold would abuse his children
Detective Chief Inspector Peter Croxford (left) with the pry bar used to kill Ivy Davies, one of Patrick Mackay's victims. Another one of his possible victims, Heidi Mnilk (right), who was stabbed in the neck
The Daily Mail (left) reported the case in the mid 70s and pictured Mackay (right) on the front cover and described him as the 'mad killer the law let go'
These stomach-churning photos form part of John Lucas' new book Britain's Forgotten Serial Killer: The Devil's Disciple, a detailed and dramatic account of the notorious Nazi-obsessed killer and his victims.
'Convicted of three killings, suspected of another eight, Patrick David Mackay was dubbed the Monster of Belgravia, the Devil's Disciple and simply The Psychopath amid a torrent of public anger at the way he had repeatedly slipped through the grasp of the criminal justice system,' explained Lucas.
'When the authorities added it all up, Mackay had been incarcerated, sectioned or otherwise detained at least nineteen times before he was finally brought to justice for his horrific killing spree.'
Lucas said it was a cased that left the nation stunned and that Mackay could soon be out walking the streets freely after being allowed to change his name.
A young Patrick Mackay (pictured above) playing with stolen garden gnomes in his garden in Gravesend. It was reported that neighbours also saw him playing with birds
A ten-year-old Patrick Mackay (pictured above) playing with sand figures while on holiday with his parents. The new book reveals that Patrick had struggled to come to terms with the death of his father and would often tell them he was still alive
On the left, an extract from Mackay's criminal record shows he was a crook from the age of 11. On the right, Mackay's charge sheet for the murder of Father Anthony Crean
'Yet the extraordinary story of this 22-year-old Nazi-obsessive, who hacked a priest to death with an axe and killed two elderly women during a remorseless robbery campaign on the upmarket streets of West London, was all but forgotten by Christmas of 1975.
'It had been expected to run and run. Among the unsolved cases Mackay had apparently confessed to in prison - but later denied under questioning - was the murder of a teenage nanny on a train and the heinous double killing of a widow and her four-year-old grandson.
The book also reveals that Mackay had also been suspected of murdering a popular café owner from Essex. Ivy Davis' body was found at her Westcliff-on-sea home with multiple wounds to her head, as well as a ligature around her neck on 4 February 1975.
In 2006 Essex Police questioned 68-year-old Basildon man who was arrested as part of a cold case review. She was last seen leaving the cafe on the evening of 3 February, 1975 and was discovered by her daughter the following day.
'While police had taken the initial decision not to charge Mackay with those crimes, it seemed to be only a matter of time before more evidence came to light. But the charges never materialised.
Murder victims Stephanie Britton and her four-year-old grandson Christopher Martin. Mackay allegedly admitted to killing them but later refused to confess
Mackay admitted to killing pensioner Sarah Rodmell whose blood is seen (left) on her doorstep in east London. Police are pictured right searching land close to another victim, Ivy Davies' cottage
The book cover of 'Britain's forgotten serial killer' (left) written by John Lucas about Patrick Mackay (pictured right in police mugshot)
'Perhaps it was because, despite his alleged gloating to fellow prisoners, Patrick Mackay did not really kill all those people. Yet while he languishes in prison to this day - still too dangerous to be released - every one of those crimes remains unsolved.'
Mackay was born in 1952 and was raised in an abusive household and regularly beaten by his alcoholic father. It was not long before Mackay was committing criminal acts himself,
