One of Britain’s most notorious sex attackers who targeted more than a dozen victims in 1984 died from a heart attack in prison, an inquest has heard.
Malcolm Fairley, who became known as ‘The Fox’ for the way he built lairs in his targets’ homes to hide before attacking them, carried out a series of sex attacks across Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire.
He was finally caught in September 1984 after sparking one of the largest manhunts in British criminal history.
Fairley was handed six life sentences the following year and has remained behind bars ever since.
However, it has been heard at an inquest at Hull Coroner’s Court that 71-year-old was found dead at HMP Hull on May 28, 2024, reports the BBC.
The provisional cause of his death was a myocardial infarction, or heart attack, but assistant coroner Sarah Middleton could not conclude the inquest due to a prison investigation.
Ms Middleton adjourned the inquest for a later date, which is yet to be fixed, as she told the court she wanted to hear evidence of what happened during the night shift at the prison at the time of Fairley’s death.
Fairley had been ‘dead for quite sometime’ before he was found, the court heard.
Malcolm Fairley (pictured) carried out a series of sex attacks across Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire in 1984
Fairley with his head under a blanket being led away by police after being arrested
He was finally caught in September 1984 after sparking one of the largest manhunts in British criminal history
His crimes were carried out in the hot summer of 1984, when national tensions were inflamed amidst the ongoing miners’ strike.
Fairley’s victims included both men and women, ranging in age from teenagers to pensioners.
He would break into victims’ homes, help himself to food and drink and then build a lair out of furniture and blankets.
He would also remove all light bulbs and then wait in the dark, flicking through victims’ family photo albums by torchlight before they returned.
At the height of his crimes, there were three attacks in the space of a week.
In a Channel 5 documentary aired last April, The Intruder: He’s Watching You, Fairley is heard being asked by Detective Chief Superintendent Brian Prickett, who led the investigation that led to his capture, if he tried to stop.
He replied: ‘Well I tried to. Many times. Every time I went I tried.’
Fairley was then asked by another officer: ‘Do you still feel you want to do it?’
DCS Brian Prickett (pictured centre), who led the investigation that led to his capture
Fairley leaves Dunstable court under police guard after his arrest
Some of the women who took to arming themselves with guns before Fairley was caught
He said: ‘Not really, it’s… but I still… get a sexy drive type thing.’
Asked by DCS Prickett about an attack he carried out on an elderly woman, he said: ‘Well, I felt disappointed in myself to do it. You know, like it’s… it just weren’t me.’
Bedfordshire Police ended up with more than 5,000 suspects and terrified residents resorted to sleeping with weapons under their beds, fearing that they might be next during the four-month spree.
Fairley, who wore a mask made from a trouser leg, also committed break-ins and sexual crimes in Milton Keynes, South Yorkshire and his native North East.
He was eventually arrested in at home in Kentish Town, North London, after forensic evidence linked his car to an attack.
At the time of his arrest he had committed 81 offences as ‘The Fox’.
He had a string of previous convictions to his name and was the father of three children from his two marriages.
In one break-in, he stole a shotgun and ammunition and later used the weapon in other attacks, including in one where he shot a businessman at point-black range.
The victim had to have his finger amputated.
DCS Prickett added: ‘Psychiatrists said that he was rational and that he was normal.
‘Well, I never accepted that. As a police officer, you deal with him professionally, but as a human being to human being, you’ve got complete disgust, you’ve got almost hatred.
‘I don’t think I’ll ever understand the motivation he had for the attacks he carried out.’
After sentencing Fairley to six life sentences, following his trial at St Albans Crown Court in February 1985, Mr Justice Caulfield said: ‘There are degrees of wickedness beyond condemnatory description.
‘Your crimes fall within this category. You desecrated and defiled men and women in their own homes.’
On February 27, 1985, the Daily Mail revealed Fairley’s mugshot and declared: ‘The Fox – evil beyond words.’
Fairley admitted 13 offences – three rapes, an indecent assault on a man and another on a 74-year-old woman, five burglaries and three aggravated burglaries with intent to rape while carrying a firearm.
The Daily Mail’s coverage when Fairley was handed six life sentences for his string of attacks
He also asked for 68 other crimes, mostly burglaries, to be considered.
An 18-year-old girl who was among his victim said in the Daily Mail after he was convicted: ‘I felt as if there was no one I could turn to and began crying and screaming.
‘Memories of that night were always with me, yet no one seemed to realise what was happening inside my head.
‘Eventually I could take no more and completely cracked up.’
In a three-hour ordeal, Fairley tried to force the young woman – who he had raped – to carry out sex acts with her 21-year-old boyfriend and 17-year-old brother.
