Serial killer Nilsen spent final hours in ‘excruciating pain’

Notorious Scotsborn murderer died in jail cell

Infamous Scottish-born serial killer Dennis Nilsen spent his final day in prison lying in his cell suffering from internal bleeding, an inquest has heard.

The 72-year-old, known as the Muswell Hill Murderer, died at HMP Full Sutton last May, 34 years into his life sentence for carrying out a murder spree in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Originally from Fraserburgh, Nilsen – one of the nation’s most notorious murderers – is believed to have killed as many as 15 men, most of them homeless homosexuals, at his north London home.

His inquest at Hull Coroner’s Court heard yesterday how the killer had isolated himself from other inmates and staff but was otherwise a good prisoner, despite regularly refusing to engage with healthcare services.

A coroner heard how he spent his final hours in prison in “excruciating pain” and lying in his own filth as he suffered a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm.

Hull coroner Professor Paul Marks said: “Although he would not often talk to staff and he did not appear to have any close inmates or associates, he got on well and appeared to be a good prisoner.”

In his verdict, he said: “Dennis Andrew Nilsen died of natural causes.”

Nilsen would befriend his victims in pubs and bars in London before luring them into his flat, where he would kill them and sit with their corpses before dismembering them.

His crimes were discovered when a drain outside his home on Cranley Gardens, Muswell Hill, became blocked by human remains that he had tried to flush away.

Nilsen was jailed for life with a recommendation he serve a minimum of 25 years in 1983, on six counts of murder and two of attempted murder. The sentence was later upgraded to a whole-life tariff.

Dennis Nilsen leaving court in 1983.