Between March 8 and June 12, 1993, Colin Ireland killed five men in London. All five were gay. He met them through a gay pub in Earl's Court and killed them in their own homes. He was 37, out of work, and a former soldier. On December 20, 1993, at the Central Criminal Court in London, the Old Bailey, he pleaded guilty to all five murders. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a whole life tariff, which meant he would never be considered for release, and he died in Wakefield Prison in West Yorkshire on February 21, 2012, aged 57.
The case is remembered for two things beyond the deaths of the five men. Ireland wanted to be known as a serial killer, and he contacted a charity, a national newspaper and the police about the killings. And a review published in 2007 found that the police inquiry had been hampered by a lack of knowledge of London's gay scene and had lost valuable time before the deaths were linked.
The five men were Peter Walker, Christopher Dunn, Perry Bradley, Andrew Collier and Emmanuel Spiteri. PinkNews, in a 2017 article built on recordings of Ireland's police interviews, gave their ages as 49, 37, 35, 33 and 41 respectively. All five died between March 8 and June 12, 1993.
Ireland chose them, he told police, because he expected gay men to stay quiet and not go to the police. He presented himself as gay to be invited into their homes.
According to PinkNews, which reported on the case when Ireland died in 2012, Ireland decided at the start of 1993 that he would become a serial killer. The recordings of his police interviews, released in the CBS Reality documentary series Voice of a Serial Killer and described by PinkNews in 2017, show him speaking of serial killing as a "career" that would make him "famous." He was unemployed at the time.
Ireland described himself as heterosexual. He consistently denied being gay, PinkNews reported in 2012, and he repeated that denial to the police. The criminologist David Wilson, who appeared in the 2017 documentary, called him "a man at war with his own sexuality" and said his confessions showed no remorse. Wilson suggested that killing gay men may have served Ireland as a smokescreen for his own sexuality. Others, PinkNews noted, saw the killings as driven by homophobia. Ireland had been propositioned by men as a teenager, the same article said, and his relationships with women had failed. A psychologist quoted by the Pembrokeshire Herald in 2017 said Ireland may have exploited the vulnerability of gay men in the early 1990s, many of whom had to keep their sexuality hidden.
The PinkNews account of the interview tapes adds that Ireland attacked only men who had approached him.
The first killing was on March 8, 1993. After it, Ireland contacted the Samaritans, the telephone support charity, and The Sun newspaper, PinkNews reported in 2012.
Over the following three months he killed four more men. He strangled them. Each was killed in his own home after meeting Ireland. The last killing was on June 12, 1993.
Later, Ireland telephoned the police to ask why they had not linked his crimes. PinkNews reported this in both its 2012 articles on his death; the 2017 article said police were accused of homophobia because they were slow to respond and did not connect the killings for days.
The Metropolitan Police investigation into the five deaths was reviewed years later by a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Independent Advisory Group. Its 2007 report found that the inquiry had been hampered by a lack of knowledge of London's gay scene, and that valuable time had been lost before officers linked the killings. The Yorkshire Post and PinkNews both recalled the report when Ireland died in 2012.
Ireland was caught later in 1993, the Yorkshire Post reported, when security camera footage showed him with his last victim.
After his arrest, PinkNews reported in 2017, Ireland was at first reluctant to speak to detectives. He then admitted all five killings.
Ireland admitted all his crimes at the Old Bailey on December 20, 1993. He pleaded guilty to five murders, and the five convictions stood.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a whole life tariff. The Yorkshire Post and the Pembrokeshire Herald date the whole life term to 1993.
The press called him the "Gay Slayer," a nickname used in headlines when he died.
Earlier in February 2012 Ireland fractured his hip in a fall in the prison exercise area, the coroner's officer later told the opening of his inquest, and after that he needed a walking frame or a wheelchair.
He died at Wakefield on the morning of February 21, 2012. The Yorkshire Post reported the next day that he had died in the prison's healthcare center and that his death was presumed to be from natural causes. A Prison Service spokeswoman said that the independent Prisons and Probation Ombudsman would investigate, as it does every death in custody.
An inquest into his death opened at Wakefield Coroner's Court; PinkNews reported the hearing on February 29, 2012. Relaying the Yorkshire Evening Post's report, PinkNews said the coroner's officer told the hearing that Ireland had fractured his hip earlier that month in the exercise area and had been found face down on the floor of his cell. The preliminary causes of death from the post-mortem examination were given as pulmonary fibrosis and the fractured hip. The inquest was adjourned for further reports.
In 2017 the case was the focus of the CBS Reality programme Voice of a Serial Killer, which used recordings of his police interviews that had never been released to the public. The Haverfordwest actor Carl Sykes landed his first lead role playing Ireland in a docudrama about the case, the Pembrokeshire Herald reported in November 2017.
The age of Peter Walker. PinkNews (2017) gives it as 49; other reports do not give his age.
The length of the series. PinkNews (2017) gives the dates as March 8 to June 12, 1993, but in the same article says he killed the five men in 15 days. The Yorkshire Evening Post (2021) describes five killings within three months.
The cause of death. The post-mortem findings reported at the opening of the inquest in February 2012 gave pulmonary fibrosis and the fractured hip as preliminary causes, and the Yorkshire Evening Post repeated pulmonary fibrosis in 2021. No final inquest conclusion has been published in the sources cited.
His motive. Ireland said he chose gay men because he expected them not to go to the police, and he spoke of wanting fame. David Wilson saw a man in conflict about his own sexuality; others saw homophobia. No court tested these accounts, because he pleaded guilty.
Early 1993: Ireland decides to become a serial killer, by his own later account.
March 8, 1993: The first of the five killings, in London. Afterward Ireland contacts the Samaritans and The Sun.
March to June 1993: The killings continue; Ireland calls the police to ask why the deaths have not been linked.
June 12, 1993: The last of the five killings. The five men were Peter Walker, Christopher Dunn, Perry Bradley, Andrew Collier and Emmanuel Spiteri.
December 20, 1993: He pleads guilty to five murders at the Old Bailey and receives life with a whole life tariff.
2007: A Metropolitan Police advisory group review finds the 1993 inquiry was hampered by a lack of knowledge of London's gay scene.
February 2012: Fractures his hip in a fall in the prison exercise area.
February 21, 2012: Dies at HMP Wakefield, aged 57.
Late February 2012: Inquest opened at Wakefield Coroner's Court and adjourned.
2017: Voice of a Serial Killer broadcasts recordings of his police interviews.