Geoffrey Evans (1940 in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

– 20 May 2012 in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

) was an English killer who murdered two women in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

with an accomplice John Shaw in 1976, and one of the longest-serving prisoners in Ireland. He was known to have planned to rape and kill one woman each week. The British police had previously investigated the pair in connection with three rapes committed in England in 1974, prompting the men to leave the United Kingdom and travel to the Republic of Ireland. They planned a series of murders and rapes, which they did by house theft. They were detained in Cork and received a two-year prison sentence for burglary. After 18 months, however, they were released and escaped British prosecution for the rape charges in England by failing to return to the U.K. and travelling through Ireland. In August 1976, in

Wicklow Wicklow ( ; ga, Cill Mhantáin , meaning 'church of the toothless one'; non, Víkingaló) is the county town of County Wicklow in Ireland. It is located south of Dublin on the east coast of the island. According to the 2016 census, it has a ...

, they repeatedly raped and then murdered Elizabeth Plunkett, 23. In September of that year, in

Castlebar Castlebar () is the county town of County Mayo, Ireland. Developing around a 13th century castle of the de Barry family, from which the town got its name, the town now acts as a social and economic focal point for the surrounding hinterland. W ...

, they beat, raped and murdered 23-year-old Mary Duffy. On 26 September 1976, both were detained by the Gardaí and later sentenced to life imprisonment for the two murders. In December 2008, Evans underwent heart surgery, suffered a stroke and fell into a coma. Until June 2010 he remained in hospital care with caution, and then was given temporary release when doctors said he was in a

vegetative state A persistent vegetative state (PVS) or post-coma unresponsiveness (PCU) is a disorder of consciousness in which patients with severe brain damage are in a state of partial arousal rather than true awareness. After four weeks in a vegetative stat ...

. In April 2011 he was transferred to Dublin's St. Mary's Hospital. He died there on 20 May 2012 at the age of 71 or 72 (sources vary). According to the autopsy, the cause of death was sepsis caused by pneumonia.

References

2012 deaths English rapists Irish rapists People convicted of murder by the Republic of Ireland 1940 births {{Criminal-stub