About Colin Ireland
Colin Ireland (16 March 1954 – 21 February 2012) was a British serial killer known as the Gay Slayer, because his victims were gay men. Ireland suffered a severely dysfunctional upbringing. He committed various crimes from the age of 16 and had served time in borstals and prisons. While living in Southend, he started frequenting the Coleherne, a gay pub in Earl's Court, London. Ireland sought men who liked the passive role and sado-masochism, so he could readily restrain them as they initially believed it was a sexual game. Criminologist David Wilson believes that Ireland was a psychopath. Forensic psychologist Anna Gekoski stated that her interactions with Ireland led her to believe that he was motivated by a desire for fame as a serial killer. Ireland was heterosexual: he had been twice married to women, he pretended to be gay only to befriend potential victims. Ireland's murders were not sexually motivated. He was highly organised and carried a full murder kit of rope, handcuffs and a full change of clothes to each murder. After killing his victim he cleaned the flat of any forensic evidence linking him to the scene and stayed in the flat until morning in order to avoid arousing suspicion from leaving in the middle of the night. Ireland was sentenced to five counts of life imprisonment for the murders on 20 December 1993 and remained imprisoned until his death on 21 February 2012, at the age of 57. They divorced in 1987 after his wife discovered he had committed adultery.
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