The crimes of Dennis Nilsen, one of Britain’s most infamous serial killers, shocked the nation back in the early 1980s.

The Scot carried out a murderous spree of near-unparalleled savagery between 1978 and 1983 - and is believed to have killed as many as 15 young men at his north London home in Muswell Hill.

He became known as the Muswell Hill Murderer - and his horrific crimes were revisited by a recent ITV crime drama named after the way in the way which he would introduce himself, Des.

What did Nilsen do?

Homosexual predator Nilsen would often befriend his victims in the pubs and bars of London, before offering to entertain them at his flat.

Once there, many were strangled to death – sometimes after they had lost consciousness.

Times Series:

Dennis Nilsen's flat in Muswell Hill

After luring his victims - most of which were homeless homoseuxals - to their death, Nilsen would often sit with their corpses for days before dismembering them.

He would hide the dead bodies of his victims under the floorboards in his previous home in Cricklewood before burning them outside.

It was only the most prosaic of observations from a neighbour that halted Nilsen’s murderous spree – that the drains had become blocked.

A further inspection found pipes packed with human flesh, a discovery which unlocked an entirely undetected tale of mass killing which shocked Britain.

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Jay was sent to Nilsen's home after police received a phone call of the incident.

A grim interview aired in 1993 saw the bespectacled Scottish murderer describe the macabre scenes that followed.

He told an interviewer how he enjoyed caring for the bodies, dressing them and undressing them and recounted in horrific detail how they were then cut up.

While some remains were inexpertly flushed away by Nilsen, others were stored under his floorboards and in cupboards for many months, meaning detectives were greeted with the foetid stench of decay when they first searched his flat.

He said: “The bodies are all gone. There is nothing left. But I still feel a spiritual communion with these people.”

His house of horrors in Muswell Hill has been on the market several times since and is still occupied today, with flowers visible in the attic window.

What happened to Nilsen?

Nilsen was jailed for life with a recommendation he serve a minimum of 25 years in 1983, on six counts of murder and two of attempted murder.

He died behind bars at the age of 72.

An inquest was told that Nilsen spent his final day in prison lying in his cell suffering from internal bleeding.

A coroner heard how he spent his final hours in prison in “excruciating pain” and lying in his own filth as he suffered a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm.