Serial killer Dennis Nilsen’s ashes could be scattered off Fraserburgh within weeks, it has emerged.
The 72-year-old died in 2018 while serving life for the murder of at least a dozen young vulnerable men in north London.
He was caught after the drains outside his home in Muswell Hill became blocked by the human remains he had tried to flush away.
Apart from two prison officers, long-term pen pal Mark Austin – who Nilsen had named as his next of kin – was the only person to attend the funeral.
He was then given Fraserburgh-born Nilsen’s ashes, along with his other possessions including his bird cage, typewriter, radio and even the glasses he wore in a police mugshot from 1983.
Today Mr Austin revealed has kept the ashes on his mantlepiece, but three years on is preparing to make the trip to Fraserburgh to scatter them.
Ceremony within weeks to bring ‘closure’ to families
He hopes to do it in the coming weeks, to bring “closure” to the victims’ families.
He revealed he is refusing to grant the depraved killer’s request for them to be scattered on the waste ground at the bottom of Melrose Avenue, where he burned many of his victims, as that would be an “insult” to the families.
Speaking to The Sun, Mr Austin said he understood that wherever the ashes were scattered would cause anger.
“I think the sea in Fraserburgh is the best place,” he said.
“Des loved the sea, I think it’s what he would have wanted. It’s going to be closure and the end to it all.
“I know people in Fraserburgh won’t be happy and it will cause a fuss but it was Des’s birthplace — and he was a human being.”
Unlikely friends?
Graphic designer Mr Austin wrote to Nilsen in jail “out of curiosity” in 1991.
Over the years the pair swapped hundreds of letters and found they had interests in common, including Laurel and Hardy films plus Peter Sellers.
The married father-of-two, from Bedfordshire, even visited Nilsen in hospital the day before he died and later collected his possessions from HMP Full Sutton, York – even visiting his cell.
He also inherited 6,000 pages of type-written notes made by Nilsen about his life.
From them, he wrote the controversial autobiography History Of A Drowning Boy which was released in January.
He also helped make the Netflix documentary Memories of a Murder: The Nilsen Tapes, which was released last week.
Mr Austin plans to sell Nilsen’s other belongings, with proceeds going to IVF groups.
And although they were friends, he insists: “We had a friendship – but I never lost sight of what he did.”