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THE ATTIC : SCENE OF CRIME PROCEDURES : (Case Study) Patrick Mackay	Date Added JAN 2003
Mackay's father, a violent alcoholic who regularly assaulted his wife and children when drunk, died in 1962, when Patrick was ten years old. From this point the boy seems to have taken over his father's role as the local bully. He was always in trouble at school, mostly for beating children younger and weaker than himself, and he became fond of torturing small animals. This behaviour inevitably resulted in frequent visits both to mental institutions and to approved schools. Twice Mackay was release from Moss Side Hospital against the strong advise of his doctors. The young Patrick Mackay enthusiastically embraced the theories of the German Nazis, styling himself 'Franklin Bollvolt the First' and fashioning crude uniforms by sewing and sticking various Nazi emblems on to his everyday clothing. Like his father, Patrick also became dependant upon drink, and reacted violently under stimulus. He was also now a more-or-less fully employed crook, specializing in theft, street robbery, and aggravated burglary - all his victims were elderly women. On 14 February 1974, Mackay broke into the London home of Isabella Griffiths, and in the course of robbing her stabbed the eighty-four year old woman to death. Just over a year later, Mackay knocked at the door of Mrs Adele Price to ask for a drink of water; when invited in, he strangled her. Father Anthony Crean, a benevolent sixty four year old Roman Catholic Priest, had helped Mackay two years previously when he was having problems at home, and by way of thanks Patrick robbed him. Then on 21 March 1975, Mackay returned and attacked Father Anthony at his home in Shorne, Kent. He stabbed his former benefactor several times and then split his head open with an axe before putting him, still alive, in a bath of water and sat on the edge for an hour watching as his victim floundered and groaned, and then died. Given the nature of the previous relationship between the priest and the unworthy recipient of his generosity, local police had Patrick Mackay under arrest within forty-eight hours. In the meantime, pathologist Professor James Cameron had made his model report of the medical aspects of the scene of the crime: The small window in the bathroom was open and a tray cloth was over the wash basin. The pipe from the shower attachment appeared to have been torn off. The bloodstained water was up to the level of the overflow. There was much blood staining of the top of the bath and all over the wall at the back of the bath and over the wall over the top of the bath with slight blood staining over the edge of the front of the bath, but there was no evidence of water or dampness on the floor of the bathroom. No naked eye evidence of bloodstained marks on the taps of the wash basin. The top of the head appeared to have a towel wrapped over it. A sample was taken of the bath water and the level of the bloodstained water was marked before the plug, which did not have any chain attached, was removed to release the water. The body was removed from the bath and placed on a plastic body sheet. I remained at the scene whilst this was being carried out and whilst the body was totally wrapped within the body sheet and removed from the bathroom by police officers into the hallway from which it was moved, in my presence, by the undertakers. In conjunction with Detective Superintendent Irvine, I visited the other rooms in the house and was present when Superintendent Irvine found a box underneath the stairs in which there was a blood stained axe. During this preliminary view of the scene I saw no evidence of a blood stained cutting weapon. I remained at the scene until the body was removed to the mortuary. Later the same day, at 6.00am, within the mortuary of Gravesend and North Kent Hospital, Bath street, Gravesend, I carried out a post-mortem examination on the body of the man previously identified to me by Detective Chief Inspector Hart as being Anthony Joseph Crean. As for Patrick Mackay, he was charged with a total of five murders and questioned about a further six. He was judged to be sane and fit to plead at his trial, and subsequently found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.
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