John Massey (prisoner)


John Massey was the longest-serving prisoner in the United Kingdom, having been imprisoned nearly 43 years. He was initially given a 20-year mandatory life sentence for the murder of Charlie Higgins, a pub doorman, but spent more than double that amount of time incarcerated after escaping on three occasions, firstly during an escorted visit in 1994 to see his parents in Kentish Town, North London in which he fled to Spain and was extradited three years later, then in 1997 he escaped to see his dying father Jack and then in 2012 to see his mother, May, who was on her deathbed after he was denied compassionate leave. In this period after the escape he was denied by the Parole Board to be released three times. He was released on parole in 2018.
In November 2019 Massey was the subject of a Channel 4 documentary called What Makes a Murderer, where he was interviewed and assessed both physically and psychologically to investigate whether there were pre-existing factors which made him more likely to kill. The programme found that he had two specific brain abnormalities which, combined with childhood abandonment at the age of three, may have contributed to him committing murder.