One of Britain's longest serving prisoners will remain in jail 26 years after completing his minimum sentence, the parole board has ruled.
Patrick Mackay, 67, dubbed the “Monster of Belgravia”, strangled two old ladies and butchered a Catholic priest with an axe.
But Mackay confessed to eight more killings - then denied it. All of the attacks remain unsolved.
Police were asked to probe the cases in 2019, delaying his parole hearing.
The board has now decided not to make findings of fact in relation to those cases due to the “passage of time” and “absence of complete evidence”.
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It said in a decision summary released on Thursday: “The panel found that it should consider some of the allegations but decided that these did not affect its assessment of Mr Mackay’s risk.”
Mackay was 23 when he was convicted of strangling and stabbing Isabella Griffiths, 87, in Belgravia, central London in 1974 and Adele Price, 89, a year later.
He was further convicted of murdering 64-year-old Catholic priest Anthony Crean in the Kent village of Shorne in 1975.
Mackay, who has changed his name to David Groves, was jailed for life for manslaughter, by reasons of diminished responsibility.
Another 24 offences were taken into consideration by the trial judge, including robberies and thefts.
He had also been charged with two further murders, which denied committing, which were ordered by the trial judge to “lie on file”.
MacKay has been in open conditions since 2017.
The panel said it considered a dossier of more that 1700 pages and heard evidence from his probation officer, the official supervising his case in prison, a psychologist and an independent psychologist.
The parole board said: “After considering the circumstances of his offending, the progress made while in custody and the evidence presented at the hearings, the panel was not satisfied that Mr Mackay was suitable for release.
“However, on assessing the benefits and risks of Mr Mackay remaining in open conditions, the panel recommended that he should stay in the open estate.”
Among the unsolved murders Mackay admitted and then denied was that of cafe owner Ivy Davies, 48, who was axed to death at her home in Southend, Essex, in February 1975.
Her son Victor, of New Ash Green, Kent, said last year: "Everybody knows he's killed more than three people. Every police officer I've spoken to believes that.
"If you haven't come clean on all of your crimes, you cannot be a reformed character."
