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How A Blocked Toilet Led To Uncovering Lonely Serial Killer Dennis Nilsen

How A Blocked Toilet Led To Uncovering Lonely Serial Killer Dennis Nilsen

He's one of the most prolific serial killers ever to have walked the streets of London and a new CBS series reveals some of his confessions

Paddy Maddison

Paddy Maddison

A new series of CBS Reality crime docu-drama, Voice Of A Serial Killer, will feature confessions from one of the most disturbing murderers in history, Dennis Nilsen.

The former police officer and butcher used the skills he acquired during his time in each profession to enable himself to become one of the most prolific serial killers ever to walk the streets of London.

The twisted killer's modus operandi was to lure young gay men back to his flat, where he would kill them, butcher them and hide them under his floorboards. Once the corpses became too decomposed and began to smell, he would bury them in a makeshift cemetery at the bottom of his garden.

The London flat where Nilsen disposed of his victims. Credit: PA

Keeping the bodies nearby allowed Nilsen to feel close to his victims, gave him a sense of companionship and, most importantly, made him feel powerful.

He killed and butchered at least 12 men during the 1970s.

Commenting on his four-year murderous spree, Dr David Holmes tells Voice Of A Serial Killer: "Dennis Nilsen was a serial killer who was a wonderful chameleon. He disappeared into society, he didn't stand out. He was probably someone who would make others probably feel at ease, usually the destitute.

Credit: PA

"In the case of Nilsen, he enjoyed people that were very passive. He didn't want interaction much. He enjoyed the company of someone who was pronate, didn't do anything. Who he could kind of feel strong and powerful with."

One of his major haunts for picking up victims was Camden, North London. He would find a suitable gay man, lure him back to the flat, kill him either by drowning or strangulation and then bathe and dress him. Eventually he would chop the body up, boil it and either hide it in the garden or flush bits down the toilet when they became too smelly.

The latter method would eventually lead to his arrest, when cleaners had to be called due to a blocked drainage system.

Nilsen later also admitted to having sex with some of the corpses.

Credit: PA

In recordings of his police confessions, played on CBS Reality programme Voice of a Serial Killer, he said: "In the end there were two or three bodies under the floorboards. They began to accumulate.

"Come the summer it got hot and I knew there would be a smell problem. So I knew I was going to have to deal with the smell problem and I thought what would cause the smell. And I came to the conclusion it was the innards, the soft parts of the body, the organs, things like that."

He added that he would get 'blinding drunk before hacking up the decomposed bodies and would often take break to go and be sick in the garden.

"You know these black plastic bags you have, bin liners. You slit one of those so it sort of forms a sheet and then you haul the body out onto the floorboards, put it on the sheet and then cut it up," he said.

The depraved killer was eventually convicted of six murders but later admitted he had killed more.

His victims included Stephen Holmes, Kenneth Ockenden, Martyn Duffey, William Sutherland and Malcolm Barlow.

Season two of Voice Of A Serial Killer airs on CBS Reality on 3 January.

Source: The Mirror

Featured Image Credit: Handout

Topics: TV and Film, Murderer, TV, Serial Killer