Portrait of a Sadist shows the face of Neville Heath, the English sadistic killer who brutally abused, tortured and murdered two young women in the summer of 1946. Two prison doctors testified that although Heath was a psychopath and a sexual sadist, he was not insane. He was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging by Mr Justice Morris. Heath was executed by hanging by Albert Pierrepoint at Pentonville Prison in London on 16 October 1946.

To engrave the portrait on a one-centimetre-thick metal plate measuring one metre by one metre, I used the image on the cover of Paul Hill’s 1960 book of the same name. 

Portrait of a Sadist is part of a series of six ‘killer portraits’ exhibited as ‘True Crime Art’, a double exhibition with Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven at Galerie Transit in 1991. Besides Neville Heath, Ted Bundy aka The Only Living Witness, David Berkowitz aka Son of Sam, John Christie aka The Strangler from 10 Rillington Place, Dennis Nilsen aka Killing for Company, and Dean Corll aka The Candyman were also portrayed there.