Patrick Mackay - The Man Who Enjoyed Killing
Twenty-three-year-old Patrick Mackay was a psychotic killer who was responsible for a series of largely motiveless attacks that had baffled detectives. Initially sceptical, the police were astonished at Mackay’s detailed knowledge of at least 10 unsolved murders. Could he really have committed every one of them?
He suffered from a quite terrifying mental illness - addicted to violence and consumed with an uncontrollable urge to commit murder. Now, as he strode up the drive of the old people's home in the village of Shorne, Kent, he was hell-bent on killing one particular man.
The man was Father Anthony Crean, a Catholic priest who had befriended Mackay and tried to help free him of the demons that possessed his soul.
The home was run by Carmelite nuns, with the 63-year-old padre in charge. There was no answer to Mackay's knock, but the door was open and so he let himself in to wait. After an hour or so Father Crean returned.
He smiled when he saw 23-year-old Mackay, but the smile dissolved in an instant as he recognised the hate in the eyes of the approaching man.
Father Crean knew all about Mackay's love of inflicting pain. Panic-stricken, he tried to run, but Mackay seized him by the throat and pushed him to the ground.
Father Crean was slightly built and only 1.55m tall - no match at all for his attacker, who stood a muscular 1.88m. He cried out: 'Please don't hurt me' To Mackay, the words were like a red rag to a bull.
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