Maurice Gateaux

1. Chateau-Thierry penitentiary center
   Dates unknown

Maurice Gateaux (2 August 1936 – 17 May 2019) was a French serial killer, multi-recidivist killer and prisoner who spent 51 years in prison without benefit of a reduced sentence. In 1956, Gateaux killed an Algerian prisoner without being prosecuted, because he was intellectually disabled and the events took place during the Algerian War. In 1965, he committed a robbery by fatally beating a police officer. Placed in detention at the age of 28 in April 1965, he was sentenced in 1966 to 20 years' imprisonment before being transferred to the Nîmes Central Prison due to his diagnosed dangerousness. Incarcerated at Nîmes Prison, Gateaux killed a prison guard in May 1967 and attempted to kill another guard with a pair of scissors he was using in the sewing workshop. Tried in February 1968, he was granted mitigating circumstances on account of his intellectual disability, and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Released in July 2016 at the age of almost 80, Gateaux was cared for in a nursing home in Soissons, where he died on 17 May 2019. Between 6 April 1965 and July 2016, Gateaux remained in prison, without being granted a modified sentence, making his case the longest uninterrupted detention in France.