Colin Ireland

No trial was held as, while in remand in prison, Ireland confessed on 19 August 1993 to the murders of five homosexual men. Showing no emotion, he gave police calculated descriptions of the killings. On 20 August 1993, at the Old Bailey, London, Ireland was charged with the murders of Walker, Dunn, Bradley, Collier and Spiteri and sentenced to life imprisonment for each of the five killings. His name was on the last published list of whole life tariff prisoners, meaning that he will stay in prison for the rest of his natural life.

In Ireland’s full and frank confession to all his crimes, he emphasised four particular points. Firstly, that he had not been under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the murders. Secondly, that he was not gay or bisexual, even although he had once worked as a bouncer at a gay club in Soho. Thirdly, that he had not undressed or engaged in any sexual activity with his victims and had gained no sexual thrill from the murders. Fourthly, that he held no grudge against the gay community and that he had chosen gay men as his victims simply because they were easy targets. He claimed it was extreme male deviancy that triggered his anger, which had begun with his brushes with paedophiles in his youth. He said his victims were deviants (all into S&M sexual behaviour) who just happened to be gay. He saw himself as ridding society of vermin and craved recognition as a superior person. Psychologists saw the strategic placing of items related to childhood on the victim’s body – the teddy bears, the doll and the cat – as symbolic of Ireland’s abhorrence at the loss of innocence.