Who is is the longest-serving living detainee in your country?

18 comments

1. There is a Sicilian guy called Nino Marano.

   I’m not sure if he is still in prison, but I think so.He has spent almost all his life in prison…since 1965 I believe.

   He was originally imprisoned for theft…he stole some vegetables, and a bicycle.

   Then while in prison he killed at least two other fellow prisoners.

2. Seth Sethsen who killed a taxi driver in 1985. He’s still in prison but they are discussing parole since late 2019. When the terms are agreed to he will be able to get out on parole.

3. Joseph-Thomas Recco is currently the longest serving detainee in France. He’s in jail since 1980 and has been condemned in 1983 for two triple homicides. He’s 87yo.

4. [Hans-Georg Neumann](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans-Georg_Neumann). Commited a double murder in 1962, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 1963 and has been in prison ever since. So 59 years now.

   In March 2021, he was granted parole, but hasn’t been released yet.

   I had to google it, though. I had never heard of him before today.

   Edit: his case is interesting in so far as it shows that “life in prison” under German law actually does mean life in prison. For some reason, many people in Germany believe it means 25 years in prison, which is wrong. Life without the possibility of parole is unconstitutional in Germany, but a life sentence itself isn’t.

5. There are some people sentenced to death and since capital punishment was abolished on 1998 Christmas they keep serving in prison.

6. If my information is correct the longest sitting person is in prison since 1990. That person is serving a life sentence, for a triple homicide of his wife and in-laws in the UK, and has been in a Dutch prison since 1994, on request of his lawyer.

7. Robert Maudsley has been in prison in the U.K. since 1974. He killed a child molester and handed himself into police but was assessed as psychologically unfit to stand trial and was committed to Broadmoor secure mental hospital.

   He then killed a fellow patient and was transferred to a high-security prison, where he killed two more inmates. He has been in solitary confinement in a specially built two-room unit since 1983.

   ETA: I’m wrong. Maudsley is only the second-longest serving prisoner. David Burgess has been in prison since 1967 for the murder of two girls in Beenham. In 2012 he was convicted of another murder in Beenham that took place in 1966.

8. We have a max 40 years sentence, and off the top of my head I know two guys who got it. One 20some yo killed several people in burglary for money for drugs then burned the appartment. The gunned down several dealers in a revenge streak across the city.

9. [Miguel Montes](https://www.google.com/amp/s/elpais.com/politica/2017/10/23/actualidad/1508755867_708659.html%3foutputType=amp), a thief. Unlike other people mentioned in this thread, he never killed anyone. He was sent to prison for robbery, and every time he got permision to leave temporally (going to a funeral, for example) he would escape and get caught again. He also committed more minor crimes every time a sentence ended, so he was always going back to prison.

   He spent 36 years in prison (actually, four of those escaped) between 1976 and 2012, when he was pardoned by the government.

10. The longest in currently serving time is 22yrs. He was inside for murder, then after serving his sentence was paroled, and went back inside. Name has not been given though.

11. Apparently its this rapist and murderer, John Shaw. 45 years in prison.

    https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/state-s-longest-serving-prisoner-in-fresh-bid-to-secure-temporary-release-1.4766005#:~:text=The%20Republic's%20longest%2Dserving%20prisoner,escorted%20temporary%20release%20a%20year.

12. Zdeněk Vocásek, two murders and one attempt, with previous violent activity. Arrested in 1987, so 35 years.

    There was a controversial amnesty after the end of communism, and combined with the death penalty, there’s not many old-time prisoners in Czechia.

13. Its Juan Carlos Chemlir. He robbed a post office with a gun and killed a person 1979.

    He was sentenced to life in prison, but escaped 1989. He kidnapped a women and raped her multiple times before he got caught. Since then he applied multiple times for parole but he was deemed too dangerous to reenter society. He is sick with cancer according to the last article about Chemlir (2021).

    He spent over 50 years in prison including earlier imprisonments.

14. Silvo Drevenšek was sentenced with a life long sentence in December. On Christmas Day 2020, he murdered three people, his wife and both of her parents. All of that was happening in front of his 4 year old son. That was also the first life long sentence in history of modern day Slovenia

15. Longest until recently 42 year old wrongly convicted murderer Viggo Kristiansen

16. [Stig Millehaugen](https://premium.vgc.no/v2/images/1663e3cd-f38c-47f7-ae5d-6e525131909f?fit=crop&format=auto&h=610&w=900&s=92a414d76f5856bf0850db122eb091de45d86ea0)… has been serving more or less continously since 1992. Firste sentenced for armed robery… then later sentenced to 17 years in prison for murdering a prison guard under an escape attempt.. When those 17 years was nearly done.. while being on parole in the last part of his sentence, he comitted a new murder and was sentenced to 21 years + something called “forvaring” here (hard to explain)…but mean that you after those 21 year still can be kept in prison if you’re not considered to be safe for the society. Being in his 50ies now… he would have probably spent his whole adult life when/if getting out… In norway being convicted for murder after having done murder before.. is a microscopic rariety..His first hope of being free would be in the end of this decade. Then he would have spent up 35-40 years in prison.

17. Seth Sethsen who is originally from Greenland has been imprisoned in Albertlund, Denmark for 36 years for a murder he committed one a taxi driver. He recently appeared in the news here as someone that might be getting out soon.

    Palle Sørensen is another noteworthy mention, although he died in 2018. He killed 4 police officers in 1965, and was the primary reason as to why police here started carrying guns. He served 33 years until his death. My own grandfather was a police officer, he got killed 10 years later in 1975 after getting stabbed.

18. Delfim Sousa, a thief and drug dealer, he was arrested in the early 80s and spent 30 something years in jail. He was released some years ago.

    Edit: I just searched it, and there’s a [Wikipedia entry about him](https://pt.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delfim_Sousa) available in Portuguese.