Bristol: ‘Devil’s Disciple’ serial killer is back on the streets | UK News
A serial killer nicknamed “Devil’s Disciple” is allowed back on the streets after 47 years in prison – although he is considered too dangerous to be released.
Patrick Mackay, 70, who killed two widows and a priest, was seen walking through a bus station in Bristol city center while on the day of his release from HMP Leyhill, Gloucestershire.
He even chatted with a stranger and stood a few feet from a baby, reports The Sun.
The killer, who now uses the name David Groves, was denied parole last month but was told he could roam the streets with a license just a week later.
Mackay was sentenced to life in prison after admitting to killing two widows, Adele Price and Isabella Griffiths, in 1974 and the priest Father Anthony Crean in 1975.
He strangled and stabbed Ms Griffiths, 87, at their home in Chelsea before strangling Ms Price, 89, in Kensington.
The following year he split Father Crean’s head in half with an ax and mutilated his body in Kent.
After his arrest, he claimed responsibility for eight other murders, including those of Stephanie Britton and her four-year-old grandson, Christopher Martin, in 1974.
He also said he killed German au pair Heidi Mnilk, 17, who was stabbed to death in south-east London and thrown from a train.
The diagnosed psychopath said he killed Mary Haynes, 79, in Kentish Town, as well as a homeless man, a shopkeeper and a 92-year-old woman.
He also admitted to killing 48-year-old cafe owner Ivy Davies in Southend, Essex, in February 1975 after she was struck to death by a metal pole.
But he recanted all of these later confessions.
The killer now claims he’s reformed and no longer a threat.
Vic Davies, a son of one of the victims, said: “It doesn’t make sense. There is clearly a desire to get him out of prison, and it’s a huge gamble.
“It takes a split second for something to go horribly wrong.”
Gareth Johnson, MP for Dartford in Kent, where Mackay is originally from, said: “There’s a real danger posed by this man – he’s young enough to kill again.”
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