The Fox "never deserves to be released" says officer ahead of serial rapist's fresh freedom bid

The notorious sex attacker The Fox must never be released from prison according to the senior police officer who led the investigation in the 80s.

A major new Channel 5 documentary about the series of sexual attacks and burglaries across Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire in the summer of 1984 has revealed Malcolm Fairley – who was sentenced to SIX LIFE SENTENCES for his crimes – is eligible for a parole board review later this year.

But speaking ahead of the film being aired tonight (Monday), Detective Chief Superintendent Brian Prickett, who led the investigation that led to his capture, said: “Malcolm Fairley should never come out of prison after all the fear and harm he put into the community. He never deserves to be released because I think he’s still a real risk to the public.”

The documentary, The Intruder: He’s Watching You From Within, is airing tonight at 10pm on Channel 5.

Made by ITN Productions, it details the pursuit of one of the most prolific and depraved offenders in British criminal history – told by the detectives who ultimately snared Fairley.

The film also includes never before heard police interviews with Fairley where he confesses to his terrible crimes.

In 1984, Fairley, originally from County Durham, brought terror to the usually peaceful villages of Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire with a series of violent burglaries.

He was dubbed The Fox, because he would build dens in the houses he broke into while waiting for homeowners to return. Masked and brandishing a shotgun, he would then commit crimes which included rapes, indecent assaults and violently attacks.

At its height in the summer of 1984 there were three attacks in just one week and 200 officers were involved in one of the largest police manhunts in British criminal history.

Fairley also committed break-ins and sexual crimes in Milton Keynes, South Yorkshire and his native North East. He was eventually arrested in September 1984 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.

In the documentary, DCS Prickett talks about finally coming face to face with Fairley: “When I first saw him, he said to me, ‘I'd seen you on the television a few times, and I never thought I'd see you in real life’, and I said to him, ‘I knew I'd see you’.

“We said, ‘Why did you do it? Tell us why. Do you realise what you did to these people? Are you sorry?’ He shrugged his shoulders. He never showed any remorse, or he never once asked, ‘How are these people?’ Not once.”

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.”