One man terrorised the UK in a ‘Triangle of Fear’ for an entire summer before he was finally caught and charged with a whopping 81 offences
For months, people living in the leafy towns and villages of Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire were too terrified to leave their homes,
A serial sex attacker was on the loose. The twisted rapist, who was dubbed The Fox, hid out in people’s homes before unleashing brutal sex attacks on his innocent victims.
Malcolm Fairley was a highly unusual criminal. He attacked men and women, often violating wives in front of their partners as they were tied up and unable to intervene. On some twisted occasions couples were tied up together while he carried out his sickening acts.
The detective who led the case was so traumatised by what he saw he firmly believed Fairley should never be released from prison before he died of natural causes behind bars in May 2024.
Detective Chief Superintendent Brian Prickett said described Fairley’s behaviour as “shocking and degrading”, according to the BBC.
He explained: “He would break into people’s homes when they were in bed at two or three o’clock in the morning carrying a sawn-off shotgun, and wake the couple up at the side of the bed.”
Fairley would build dens in the homes of his victims whilst waiting for their return. Cooking meals in their homes, watching TV and collecting trophies before his attacks. “The Fox” would then carry out “horrendous sexual acts and rape” on the woman.
Det Ch Supt Pickett said: “The amount of fear in the area was incredible. That summer was particularly hot and people were having to bolt their windows, in some cases screw them down, because of the fear.
“We did everything we could to alleviate the fear by making sure people knew that we were working flat out.”
It took police six months to identify Fairley and track him down. Det Ch Supt said: “There was no CCTV and no mobile phones and messages were being passed from force to force because it was a major inquiry that linked seven forces.
“Every time he carried out an offence we were able to establish a bit more information about him, and eventually we worked out he had an accent from a very narrow area of the north-east of England.
“I went to see the professor who was discovering DNA at Leicester University and he told me that we are about nine months to a year away from being able to use it, so we had to gather all the forensic evidence we could from the scenes.
Det Ch Supt Pickett said people in Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire were living in a “triangle of fear”. In just one week in 1984 there were three separate attacks.
Around 200 officers were deployed to try and catch Fairley between Dunstable in Bedfordshire, and Tring in Hertfordshire.
Fairley was sentenced to six life terms in 1985 after carrying out a series of sex attacks across Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire. On 28 May 2024 the 71-year-old was found dead at HMP Hull. He had died of a heart attack.
Fairley was arrested in September 1984 at his home in Kentish Town, north London, after forensic evidence linked his car to an attack. At the time of his arrest, Fairley had committed 81 offences.
He was given his six life sentences at St Albans Crown Court in 1985. He was considered for release in 2023, but the Parole Board rejected it.
Prickett says the impact of the attacks remained. He said: “I’ve always been concerned in my career that a lot of emphasis is placed on the offender and not on the victim. We had teams whose sole duty was to support the victims, some of whom never recovered.”
“People say ‘we’ve got justice’, but it doesn’t compensate for what happened to them.
“At no time did he show any remorse whatsoever. He was an insignificant fellow who you would probably walk by on the street and take no notice of.”
“In Malcolm Fairley’s case I was always of the view that he would be one of the people who never came out of prison… because he was still considered a danger.” “Whatever the result of the inquest I don’t think people take joy in the fact he died, but I think they take relief from the fact he was convicted.”
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