A Channel 5 documentary about the prison housing Liverpool serial killer Robert Maudsley shocked viewers as it revealed the origin of the word "nonce".
HMP Wakefield, also known as Monster Mansion, is home to some of the country's most notorious prisoners who have committed the very worst of crimes. All prisoners locked up there are classed as Category A, including convicted child sex offenders and Liverpool born serial killer Robert Maudsley.
Sick individuals who served or are serving time there include 'Hannibal the Cannibal' Robert Maudsley, 'Britain's worst rapist' Reynhard Sinaga and 'Dr. Death' Dr Harold Shipman, reports YorkshireLive. Maudsley has been housed in a ‘glass cage’ at at the prison since 1983 after killing four men in the 1970s. The box is said to bear an uncanny resemblance to the one which housed Hannibal Lecter in ‘Silence of the Lambs' .
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In 2021, Maudsley lost an appeal to be allowed to spend the rest of his prison days with the rest of the "general population".
The Wakefield prison is also where the word 'nonce' - a British slang word for paedophile - actually originated, coming from an acronym used by staff there. The programme shared that the acronym N.O.N.C.E was marked on the cell card of any prisoner who may have been in danger of violence from other prisoners.
It meant staff would not open their doors when other prisoners were out. The acronym N.O.N.C.E stands for 'not on normal courtyard exercise', according to the documentary, and apparently was first coined at the jail in Yorkshire.
Other sources online back this up, suggesting 'not on normal communal exercise', so the prison's claims to have started the term do ring true. The word is listed in Urban Dictionary and InsideTime, an online and monthly printed national newspaper for prisoners and detainees also support the theory that the term originated in Wakefield.
Taking to Twitter, many were shocked at the origin, with @KCleobury writing: "So the word NONCE originated from Wakefield, makes you so proud. #Wakefield." @UKCNUT added: "So Nonce stands for not on normal courtyard exercise , you learn something new everyday #Channel4 HMP Wakefield ; Evil behind Bars."
@super_leeds70 continued: "Wakefield Prison programme on C5 now and this popped up! Who knew!!"
