A serial killer who admitted to killing three people has been seen out on the streets despite being refused parole a month ago. Patrick Mackay, 70, was seen at a bus station in Bristol city centre after being permitted to roam on licence from HMP Leyhill, Gloucestershire.
Mackay admitted to killing two widows in 1974 and 1975, along with a priest and has been behind bars for 47 years. He also told police he killed up to eight other people, including a nanny and a boy aged four, but he later retracted his confession.
On Monday, May 1, he was seen at a bus station in Bristol city centre, talking to unsuspecting members of the public while on day release from open prison in Gloucestershire, reports The Sun. Gareth Johnson, MP for Dartford, Kent, where Mackay is originally from, said: “There is a real danger from this man — he’s still young enough to kill again.”
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Vic Davies, 67, the son of one of the additional eight people, told the publication Mackay's release "doesn't make sense".
Since 1995, Mackay has repeated been denied parole, being considered too dangerous to release. However, he has recently been kept in open prison - jails with less supervision than usual, where inmates spend time not locked in cells and are sometimes permitted to take up employment while service their sentences.
Prisoners in open jail do not have complete freedom but the purpose is to rehabilitate inmates, rather than punish them.
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