Murder of Lesley Molseed - Years in Prison As A Convicted Child Killer

Years in Prison As A Convicted Child Killer

After his conviction Kiszko was bitterly detested by the majority of inmates, receiving taunts and several death threats, both verbal and written. He was physically attacked four times during the first four and a half years of his sentence. The first time was on 24 August 1976, just after being transferred to Wakefield prison, when he was set upon by six prisoners who punched and kicked him repeatedly, cutting his mouth and injuring his leg. Guards had to pull the prisoners away to prevent further injury. When asked why they did it, the attackers replied that it was for "Lesley and her family". He was then attacked on 11 May 1977 by another inmate, who hit him over the head with a mop handle, leaving Kiszko in need of three stitches to a head wound. The next attack came 19 months later, in December 1978, when he was punched in the face by another prisoner in an unprovoked attack, whilst in the prison chapel. On each occasion, the attacks on Kiszko earned him little sympathy, amongst either other prisoners or guards, because of the crime for which he had been jailed.

In March 1981 he was involved in a fight with another prisoner, when he was punched in an unprovoked attack, but this time Kiszko retaliated, and the two had to be separated by guards. They both were given a loss of privileges for 28 days. Kiszko was never physically attacked again during the remainder of his time in prison as he was better protected and was often in the hospital wing of prisons he was held in. When he was not, he was placed among less violent offenders.

From 1979 onwards, Kiszko developed schizophrenia whilst in prison and began to suffer from delusions, one being that he was the victim of a plot to incarcerate an innocent tax-office employee so the effects of imprisonment would be tested on him. Over the next 11 years any of Kiszko's claims of innocence were labelled by prisons he was held in as symptoms of his schizophrenic delusions, or because they felt he was in a mental state of denial over the murder. One forensic psychiatrist in prison made a note of Kiszko suffering from "delusions of innocence".

On 11 November 1981 Kiszko was transferred to Gloucester Prison and in April 1983 was told that he would only ever be eligible for parole if he admitted to having carried out the murder. If he continued to deny being a child killer, then he would spend the rest of his natural life behind bars, but this made no difference to Kiszko's stance. Thirteen months later, while still denying having carried out the murder, he was moved to Bristol Prison. Such was his mental deterioration that a month later, in June 1984, it was recommended by a forensic psychiatrist that he should be moved to either Broadmoor, Park Lane (Liverpool), Rampton, or Ashworth Hospitals, but nothing came of it. Six months later, in December 1984, Kiszko was returned to Wakefield prison.

In August 1987 he was transferred again from Wakefield to Grendon Underwood Prison, where in 1988, the Governor tried to persuade Kiszko to enroll on a sex offenders' treatment programme, in which he would have had to admit having committed the rape and murder. Having done that, he would then discuss what motivated him. Kiszko refused to take part and repeatedly and persistently refused to "address his offending behaviour" on the grounds that he had done nothing that needed addressing. After this, he was left in Grendon Underwood until May 1989, when he was moved back to Wakefield Prison, and finally, on 15 March 1991 Kiszko was transferred to Ashworth Hospital, under Section 47 of the Mental Health Act 1983, after six months of delay, on the grounds of deteriorating mental health.