British police have carried out a cold case review into a series of rapes allegedly committed by murderer John Shaw, who is known as “Ireland’s first serial killer”.
The review said, however, unless new evidence came to light then Shaw (79) should not face any further charges relating to the attacks carried out in the 1970s.
This means Shaw, who is Ireland’s longest-serving prisoner, will be a free man if he is successful in reapplying for parole early in 2026.
Shaw and accomplice Geoffrey Evans had come to Ireland from the UK with the claimed intention of murdering one woman a week.
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In August 1976 Elizabeth Plunkett (23) was abducted and killed near Brittas Bay, Co Wicklow. A month later, Mayo woman Mary Duffy was kidnapped and murdered by the men. Both women were subjected to extensive sexual violence.
The men were caught shortly afterwards and confessed to their crimes. They received a life sentence each for Ms Duffy’s murder.
However, charges against Shaw relating to Ms Plunkett’s murder were dropped by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), something which the Plunkett family only became aware of recently.
Before arriving in Ireland, Shaw and Evans were wanted by various British police forces for allegedly raping three victims over the course of five days in Cheshire and Leigh, northwest England.
The attacks bore similarities to what happened to Ms Duffy and Ms Plunkett. During one attack, a 15-year-old girl was kidnapped and raped over the course of eight hours.
As the police manhunt intensified, Evans and Shaw fled to Ireland where they committed burglaries before being arrested and jailed for a year.
After their release, they were rearrested by gardaí for extradition to Britain to face the rape charges.
However, the men argued they were not the same suspects as those sought by British police and were released on bail. It was then they started their planned murder spree.
Evans (68) died in custody in 2012. Shaw remains in Arbour Hill Prison in Dublin.
Last August, on learning Shaw was applying for parole, a cold case team from Greater Manchester Police re-examined the rape offences as a priority. Their goal was to determine if Shaw could be finally extradited to Britain if he was successful in his parole bid.
The police force said the cold case unit had completed its review and that “no new developments have been made” in relation to the case.
“Should any further evidence or information come to light, further reviews would take place and the appropriate actions taken where necessary,” a spokesman said.
He clarified that this meant that unless new evidence came to light then the rape cases were in effect closed.
The police force did not go into detail on why it was not pursing the rape charges.
There are many reasons historical prosecutions cannot go ahead, including the death of witnesses and the loss of vital evidence.
Ms Plunkett’s sisters, Kathleen Nolan and Bernadette Barry, have called on the Irish authorities to reopen the investigation into her death, with a view to securing a conviction against Shaw and ensuring he is not released.
In response to queries, An Garda Síochána said it was up to the DPP to decide on reopening the case.
A DPP spokeswoman said it does not comment on individual cases, but said that in general cases cannot be reopened without “a new Garda investigation file which identified sufficient evidence to provide a reasonable prospect of a successful prosecution of an identified suspect”.
The family hopes to gather enough new evidence to reopen the case.
Last month, RTÉ began airing a podcast on Ms Plunkett’s case. Called Stolen Sister, it has led to multiple women coming forward saying they were targeted by men in the mid-1970s who may have been Shaw and Evans.
