A notorious killer known as the Devil’s Disciple is preparing to request release during a parole hearing after spending five decades behind bars. Patrick Mackay, now aged 72, was imprisoned for the murders of two elderly women and a priest in 1975, as well as confessing to eight additional killings. Considered one of the longest-serving murderers in Britain, Mackay is scheduled for a parole hearing in March.
Mackay was convicted of strangling 87-year-old Isabella Griffiths and 89-year-old Adele Price. Additionally, he brutally murdered 62-year-old Catholic priest Anthony Crean with an axe in Kent. Despite admitting to eight more slayings initially, Mackay later retracted his confessions, leaving those cases unsolved.
At the age of 23, Mackay was found guilty of strangling Isabella in central London in 1974 and Adele in a nearby area in 1975. He was also convicted of killing Father Crean in Shorne in 1975, leaving the priest’s mutilated body submerged in a tub of bloodied water.
After being apprehended two days following the priest’s murder due to past theft charges, Mackay, who now goes by the name David Groves, was sentenced to life in prison for manslaughter under diminished responsibility. The trial judge also considered 24 other offenses, such as robberies and thefts, with two additional murder charges left on file.
In a parole denial two years ago, it was revealed that Mackay had been using drugs and was identified by medical professionals as having psychopathic tendencies since being sectioned at 16 and subsequently released at 20. Mackay claimed his first murder was of a 17-year-old German au pair in 1973, followed by confessing to other brutal killings in subsequent years.
Despite withdrawing his earlier confessions before trial, Mackay faces a parole hearing in March 2026. The Parole Board emphasized that their decisions are solely based on assessing the risk a prisoner may pose to the public upon release and whether that risk can be effectively managed in society.