Once the victim had been killed, he typically bathed the victim's body, shaved any hair from the torso to conform it to his physical ideal,[128] then applied makeup to any obvious blemishes upon the skin. To see all content on The Sun, please use the Site Map. Family tree. After a brief courtship he married Elizabeth Whyte in May 1942. (The evidence provided by Stottor was not included as part of the indictment against Nilsen as his whereabouts were not known until after the indictment had been completed. DENNIS Nilsen became one of Britain's most infamous serial killers when he murdered at least a dozen boys and young men in his North London houses of horror. Each victim killed between 1978 and 1981 at his Cricklewood residence was disposed of via burning upon a bonfire. Both heads were found to have been subjected to moist heat.[117]. Tragic story of Kenneth Ockenden and how he fell into Dennis Nilsen's depraved clutches; Read More Related Articles. Albert's parents had married on 6 October 1872 in St Matthews Church, Croydon. His father did not view married life with any seriousness, being preoccupied with his duties with the Free Norwegian Forces and making little attempt to spend much time with or find a new home for his wife. [136] This incident resulted in Nilsen being found guilty on 9 August of assaulting prison officers and subsequently spending fifty-six days in solitary confinement.[134]. The couple met in Hamilton, Ontario, where Irene's family fled Russia's invasion of Estonia at the end of World War II. [10][11] When he replied that he did, he was taken into the room where his grandfather lay in an open coffin. [19] On one occasion, he also caressed and fondled the body of his older brother as he slept. The torsos and limbs of the three victims killed at this address were dissected within about one week of their murder before being wrapped in plastic bags and stowed in the three locations he had indicated to police; the internal organs and smaller bones he flushed down the toilet. Nilsen became known as the Muswell Hill Murderer, as he committed his later murders in the Muswell Hill district of North London. Ockenden was one of the three victims who had fixed address at the time of his death as others were mainly runaways, homeless or sex workers. Olav Jr. and Sylvia occasionally accompanied Dennis and his grandfather on these walks. Noting conflicting details in accounts given by both men, police had dismissed the incident as a lovers' quarrel. The first of these, Paul Nobbs, provided testimony which the prosecution asserted was evidence of Nilsen's self-control and ability to refrain from homicidal impulses. The three officers followed Nilsen into his flat, where they immediately noted the odour of rotting flesh. [103] Believing he had killed Stottor, Nilsen seated the youth in his armchair, then noted his mongrel dog, Bleep, licking Stottor's face. Former Doctor Who star David Tennant is due to play one of Britain's. One of Nilsen's stalking grounds was Camden, North London. When Nilsen enquired as to Barlow's welfare, he was informed the medication Barlow was prescribed for his epilepsy had caused his legs to weaken. This practicewhich had led to his arresthad been the only method he could consider to dispose of the internal organs and soft tissue as, unlike at Melrose Avenue, he had no exclusive use of the garden of the property. [29] On one occasion, Nilsen discovered that, by using a free-standing mirror, he could create an effect whereby if positioning the mirror so his head was out of view, he could visualise himself engaged in a sexual act with another man. They produced ten children, all registered in the Epsom district. On several occasions, Nilsen also made tentative efforts to have his own prone body sexually interfered with by one of his colleagues. Nilsen grew to resent what he saw as the unfair amount of attention his mother, grandmother and later, stepfather displayed towards his older brother and younger sister. [162] Afterward, he was briefly transferred to HMP Parkhurst, before being transferred to HMP Wakefield, where he remained until 1990. Nilsen then fell asleep alongside the body. He was invited in and, after eating a meal, began drinking rum and coke before falling asleep on the sofa. He rubbed Stottor's limbs and heart to increase circulation, covered the youth's body in blankets, then laid him upon his bed. Serial killer Dennis Nilsen was 'sexually attracted to childhood bully's dead body' David Tennant, who starred in ITV's Des, said it was "right and proper" that the show was broadcast after he died. The two men spent the evening drinking and talking; Nilsen learned that Gallichan had recently moved to London from Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, was gay, unemployed, and residing in a hostel. Among his victims were Stephen Holmes, Kenneth Ockenden, Martyn Duffey, William Sutherland and Malcolm Barlow. I relive experiences from childhood to present, taking out the bad bits. He was loved and cherished by many people including : his spouse . [25], In mid-1964, Nilsen passed his initial catering exam and was officially assigned to the 1st Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers in Osnabrck, West Germany, where he served as a private. After briefly succeeding in raising his head above the water, Stottor gasped the words, "No more, please! [13], In the years following the death of his grandfather, Nilsen became more quiet and withdrawn, often standing alone at the harbour watching the herring boats. [175] Formal identification was confirmed via a combination of circumstantial evidence and by Nilsen identifying a photograph of the youth shown to him by police (all bone fragments found at Melrose Avenue had been destroyed). [170][171] The legal case he brought against the prison service was dismissed because he could not establish that any breach of his human rights had occurred.[172]. Case 144 of, This page was last edited on 27 April 2023, at 11:53. ", Duffey's body was first placed upon a kitchen chair, then upon the bed on which he had been strangled. [49], The Melrose Avenue flat was supposed to be furnished, but upon moving in the pair found it to be largely threadbare. The first of these, James MacKeith, began his testimony on 26 October. Nilsen's victims - Stephen Holmes, Kenneth Ockenden,. MacKeith testified as to how, through a lack of emotional development,[150] Nilsen experienced difficulty expressing any emotion other than anger,[151] and his tendency to treat other human beings as components of his fantasies. On more than one occasion, he had removed the internal organs from the victims' bodies and placed them in bags, which he then typically dumped behind a fence to be eaten by wildlife. Nilsen passed the entrance examinations and received official notification he was to enlist for nine years' service in September 1961, commencing his training with the Army Catering Corps at St. Omer Barracks in Aldershot, Hampshire. I stripped myself naked and carried him into the bathroom and washed the body. [156] Croom-Johnson sentenced Nilsen to life imprisonment with a recommendation that he serve a minimum of 25 years' imprisonment. A new documentary recounts his vicious crimes. His second victim, killed in late 1979, was Canadian student Kenneth Ockenden, who was visiting relatives in the capital. The minimum term of 25 years imprisonment to which Nilsen was sentenced in 1983 was replaced by a whole-life tariff by Home Secretary Michael Howard in December 1994. In the five years between 1978 to 1983, Dennis Nilsen brought home fifteen young men with him from London bars. [7] He later described this stage of his childhood as one of contentment,[8] and his grandfather being his "great hero and protector", adding that whenever his grandfather (who was a fisherman) was at sea, "Life would be empty [for me] until he returned. ", Nilsen's written recollections of the ritual he observed after the murder of his first victim. He kept "three or four" bodies stowed beneath the floorboards before he dissected the remains, which he would wrap inside plastic bags and either return under the floorboards or, in two instances, place inside suitcases which had been left at the property by a previous tenant. The image of my dead grandfather would be the model of him at his most striking in my mind. A subsequent post-mortem examination revealed that the immediate cause of Nilsen's death was pulmonary embolism and retroperitoneal haemorrhage. He viewed these encounters as "soul-destroying" liaisons in which he "would only lend" his partner his body in a "vain search for inner peace"[40] as he sought a lasting relationship. [151] These factors could be attributed to an unspecified personality disorder from which MacKeith believed Nilsen suffered. Nilsen was eventually sentenced to life imprisonment in1983 and died in 2018 in prison. [167] The interview was screened in full that evening. [72][n 5] Nilsen encountered Ockenden as they both drank in a West End pub. One victim he could not name;[118] another he knew only as "John the Guardsman",[119] and the third he identified as Stephen Sinclair. Nilsen later recollected that he was sexually attracted to Gallichan, but the pair seldom had intercourse. We previously explained who Dennis Nilsen's biographer is and where he is now. Nilsen later claimed to have opted to end his military career due to his disillusionment regarding the conduct of the British Army on. [174] He writes: "When I was with people, I was in the 'real' world, and in my private life, I snapped instantly into my fantasy life. As Cattran had arrived at the property at dusk, he and Wheeler agreed to postpone further investigation into the blockage until the following morning. They slept in separate beds, and both began to bring home casual sexual partners. Retrieved May 11, 2022, from https://www.dailystar.co.uk/tv/tragic-story-kenneth-ockenden-how-22687397?msclkid=33def74acf9e11ec94964358c15ba4e2 Stephen Dean Holmes (1964-1978). As Nilsen progressed into adolescence, he found life in Strichen increasingly stifling, with limited entertainment amenities or career opportunities. [180][181][182], On 10 May 2018, Nilsen was taken from HMP Full Sutton to York Hospital after complaining of severe stomach pains. This included the cooking pot in which Nilsen had boiled the heads of the three victims killed at Cranley Gardens, the cutting board he had used to dissect John Howlett, and several rusted catering knives which had formerly belonged to victim Martyn Duffey. Nilsen responded calmly, admitting that the remainder of the body could be found in two plastic bags in a nearby wardrobe, from which DCI Jay and his colleagues noted the overpowering smell of decomposition emanated. In 1967, he was deployed to the State of Aden (formerly Aden Colony, now part of Yemen), where he again served as a cook at the Al Mansoura Prison. In effect, Nilsen was not guilty of "malice aforethought". [183][184], Nilsen's body was cremated in June 2018. This is achieved by taking increased amounts of alcohol and plugging into stereo music which mentally removes me to a high plane of ecstasy, joy and tears. He described himself and his colleagues as a "hard-working, boozy lot"; his colleagues recalled he often drank to excess in order to ease his shyness. On 25 October the court heard testimony from two further men who had survived attempts by Nilsen to strangle them. But one man that didn't quite fit the same pattern was Kenneth Ockenden. [114] These remains were taken to the mortuary at Hornsey, where pathologist David Bowen advised police that the remains were human,[115] and that one particular piece of flesh he concluded had been from a human neck bore a ligature mark. No more!" He had been on a tour of Britain when he came across Nilsen in a pub and he was taken around London. Nilsen was questioned in relation to the incident, but Ho decided not to press charges. [134] He was transferred to HMP Brixton to be held on remand until his trial. [167] A four-minute section of this interview, in which Nilsen frankly discussed his crimes, was initially scheduled to be broadcast on 19 January 1993; the Home Office sought to ban the interview from being broadcast[168] on the grounds that they had not granted permission for Central to conduct interviews with Nilsen which were later broadcast to the public, and claimed ownership of copyrighted material. [36] Nilsen never spoke to his older brother again, and maintained only sporadic written contact with his mother, stepfather and younger siblings. Sinclair was last seen by acquaintances in the company of Nilsen, walking in the direction of a tube station. Upon leaving Nilsen's residence, Stewart had reported the attack to police, who in turn questioned Nilsen. After meeting at a pub, the pair went to a few big tourist spots together . Kenneth had one sibling: Raymond Ockenden. He was not charged with this murder as the Crown Prosecution Service decided that a prosecution would not be in the public interest, and would not contribute to his current sentence. Following the closing arguments of both prosecution and defence, the jury retired to consider their verdict on 3 November 1983. Nilsen recalled that the putrefaction of these victims' bodies made this task exceedingly vile; he recalled having to fortify his nerves with whisky and having to grab handfuls of salt with which to brush aside maggots from the remains. Immediately after the testimony of Nobbs had concluded, Carl Stottor took the stand to recount how, in May 1982, Nilsen had attempted to strangle and drown him, before bringing him "back to life". In this deployment, Nilsen began to increase his intake of alcohol. One unidentified victim killed in November had moved his legs in a cycling motion as he was strangled (Nilsen is known to have absented himself from work between 11 and 18 November,[79] likely due to this particular murder); another unidentified victim Nilsen had unsuccessfully attempted to resuscitate, before sinking to his knees and sobbing, then spitting at his own image as he looked at himself in the mirror. The second bag contained a human skull almost completely devoid of flesh, a severed head, and a torso with arms attached, but hands missing. With reference to one victim, Kenneth Ockenden, Nilsen noted that Ockenden's "body and skin were very beautiful", adding the sight "almost brought me to tears". On 1 August, Nilsen threw the contents of his chamber pot out of his cell, hitting several prison officers. Kenneth P Ockenden, born 1934 Kenneth P Ockenden was born on month day 1934, to Agnes S Ockenden. There was an interesting segment where when investigating the disappearance of one of his victims, Kenneth Ockenden, they deliberately ignored the possibility that Ken might be gay because he came from a so-called respectable middle class family which apparently meant he had to be straight. The marriage between Nilsen's parents was difficult. He kept his sexuality hidden from his family and his few friends. He moved into an attic flat at 23D Cranley Gardens[94] in the Muswell Hill district of North London on 5 October 1981. The officers did not open the cupboard, but asked Nilsen whether there were any other body parts to be found, to which Nilsen replied: "It's a long story; it goes back a long time. Next he killed Kenneth Ockenden on December 3, 1979, a 23-year-old Canadian student. Upon learning from fellow tenants that the top floor flat from where the human remains had been flushed belonged to Nilsen, Detective Chief Inspector Peter Jay and two colleagues opted to wait outside the house until Nilsen returned home from work. On occasions when Nilsen disinterred victims from beneath the floorboards, he noted that the bodies were covered with pupae and infested with maggots; some victims' heads had maggots crawling out of eye sockets and mouths. I bring [with me] people who are not always allowed to leave because I want them to share my experiences and high feeling. View our online Press Pack. To both Cattran and Wheeler, the bones looked as if they originated from a human hand. Several jurors were visibly shaken throughout this testimony; others looked at Nilsen with incredulous expressions on their faces[149] as Nilsen listened to the testimony with apparent indifference. Upon washing his face in Nilsen's bathroom, as Nobbs noted his eyes were bloodshot and his face completely red, Nilsen had exclaimed, "God! Nilsen then led Stottor to a nearby railway station, where he informed the young man he hoped they might meet again before he bade him farewell. Birth 12 July 1929 - Leatherhead, Surrey, England, United Kingdom. Often, he vomited as he dissected the bodies,[85] before wrapping the dismembered limbs inside plastic bags and carrying the remains to the bonfires. While en route to the police station, Nilsen was asked whether the remains in his flat belonged to one person or two. [14] Nilsen initially believed that his fondling of his sister may have been evidence that he was bisexual. This service is provided on News Group Newspapers' Limited's Standard Terms and Conditions in accordance with our Privacy & Cookie Policy.

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