At 15 Patrick McKay already had a string of convictions for assault, arson and cruelty to animals. He had been in and out of various approved schools and mental institutions from which he was twice released against medical advice, one psychiatrist commenting that he had the makings of a cold psychopathic killer.
McKay was also obsessed with Fascism, and at 21 he committed his first known murder, strangling and stabbing to death 84-year-old Isabella Griffiths when she refused his offer to do her shopping.
After further attacks on pensioners, on MARCH 10th, 1975, he strangled 83-year-old Adele Price after tricking his way into her home in Knightsbridge.
Eleven days later he murdered his lifelong friend Father Anthony Cream, 63, with whom he had often stayed and from whom he had stolen money, also forging his cheques.
The police knew of McKay’s association with the elderly priest he had stabbed and axed to death, and when he was arrested two days later he admitted the three murders, was charged with two more, and was questioned about another six.
At the Old Bailey in November 1975 he was found to be fit to plead, and was sentenced to life imprisonment for the three murders he admitted. Subsequently found to be mentally abnormal, he was committed to Broadmoor, where he remains to this day.