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 Mackay is taken into custody
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The mystery of Mary Hynes
Thirty years after an unsolved murder police files reveal a ‘confession’
SCOTLAND Yard has released a serial killer’s apparent ‘confession’ to a three-decade-old unsolved murder.
The circumstances of how mentally-ill Patrick Mackay allegedly killed Irish spinster Mary Hynes at her Kentish Town home, however, remain mysterious as police files show he was supposed to be in police custody at the time of her death.
A notorious character among true-crime historians, Mackay is serving life in prison for four other murders.
Confidential documents – released under freedom of information rules and put on public display in the public records office in Kew – suggest that Mackay escaped from prison with little fuss, committed the murder and then voluntarily returned to custody without anyone noticing.
Ms Hynes was found dead at her ground floor flat in Willes Road in July 1973.
She had been bludgeoned with a piece of wood and left with a rolled up stocking in her mouth. Two years later, detectives gave up their search for her killer when Mackay was arrested for battering a priest to death in Kent.
He recalled an almost photographic description of the murder scene in Kentish Town and clear details about Ms Hynes – such as her shuffling walk.
Mackay told police that it was probable that he had killed Ms Hynes, although couldn’t remember completely what he had done.
In his statement to police Mackay said: “Although I cannot remember the details I am sure that I, and only I, could have committed this murder.
“I am positive of that. I would like to say that when I knocked on her door the only thought in my mind was to get a glass of water.
“It was when I told her that she shouldn’t answer the door to strangers and having said it to her I just flipped and lost my head.”
Mackay later changed his story and denied the murder. In a later statement, he said: “She was found stabbed I believe and battered to death. There is no evidence to tie me, except statements I made in a fed-up and couldn’t care less frame of mind.”
Ms Hynes – better known as Molly – was often seen sitting on benches during daylight hours and was known to drink in the Assembly House pub in Kentish Town Road.
The bundle of documents relating to her death is graphic and contains photographs taken at the crime scene and of her bloodied body at St Pancras Mortuary. The file is marked: Warning Distressing Pictures Inside.
While Mackay was charged with Ms Hynes’ murder, the case did not reach court. The major stumbling block for detectives was paperwork showing that Mackay was awaiting trial for possessing a weapon at the Ashford Remand Centre, Kent, in an unrelated matter, at the time of the murder. Mackay’s legal team said he would deny killing Ms Hynes if it came to court.
In a typed report to the Crown Prosecution Service, Detective Chief Inspector John Harris said: “I have made enquiries to establish that the Mackay charged with the murder is in fact the same Mackay who was on remand in Ashford.
“It is of interest that the governor of Ashford at that time suffered a nervous breakdown at about the period in which Mackay was there or shortly afterwards.
“The officers at that prison, also at the same time, were taking various forms of industrial action and striking because of dissatisfaction over pay.
“In spite of this, however, there is nothing to show that Mackay either legally or illegally left prison. The security at Ashford is such that I feel it would be impossible for any person to climb the outer fence.
“It is difficult to see how, if he had left the prison, he would enter again.”
In a handwritten note, DCI Harris added: “Except by leaving and re-entering in civilian clothes via the main gate which I consider possible at that time.”
A judge ruled in 1975 that Mackay need not be tried for Ms Hynes’ murder but it would remain on his file.
The police investigation file was closed the following year.
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