A serial rapist, who was once known as "Britain's most wanted man", is to be released from jail in the new year.
Despite getting 13 life sentences for his crimes, Andrew Barlow, formerly Andrew Longmire, has already spent some time out of prison, as he prepared for his official release in January 2023. He was sentenced in October 1988 after being convicted of 11 rapes, three attempted rapes, indecent assault, and using a firearm to resist arrest.
Throughout the 1980s, he raped multiple women in five different counties. The first was between 1981 and 1984 and the second between August 1987 and his arrest in January 1988, when he opened fire with a shotgun as two police officers detained him.
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The Mirror reports, the 66-year-old, was dubbed the " Coronation Street rapist" because many of his attacks were in terraced houses in the north of England. Two of the attacks took place in the street.
Barlow, who lived in Bolton and Oldham, would wait until his victim’s husband, partner, or parents, had left for work, before striking, often early in the morning. He left one woman with multiple stab wounds and a collapsed lung.
Before he was finally arrested, Barlow tried to shoot two police officers after going on the run as the country’s most wanted man. Decades later he admitted two more rapes from the early 1980s when DNA technology advanced.
Cold case reviews led the fiend to plead guilty while in prison in 2010 and 2017. In the first case, he raped a young mum in Sheffield while her terrified three-year-old daughter hid behind the settee.
In the second case, he broke into a terraced house in Bolton and raped a 15-year-old girl who was on her own while her parents were at work. Now he is being let out after an eighth freedom bid was nodded through by officials.
A Parole Board Decision Summary says: "In 2020, a panel of the Parole Board considered his case and recommended transfer to open conditions. This recommendation was accepted by the Secretary of State and Mr Barlow was transferred to open conditions in January 2021.
"Following that move, he had successfully undertaken periods of temporary release where he was escorted by a prison officer. The panel heard how well he was progressing in open conditions. In June 2022, Mr Barlow was moved back to closed conditions. After hearing from witnesses and Mr Barlow, the panel concluded that the evidence did not support the reasons for the transfer back to closed prison.
"The panel examined the release plan provided by Mr Barlow’s probation officer and weighed its proposals against assessed risks. The plan included a requirement to reside in designated accommodation as well as strict limitations on Mr Barlow’s contacts, movements and activities. The panel concluded this plan was robust enough to manage Mr Barlow in the community at this stage."
Barlow, aka Longmire, is expected to be released on licence in January. Strict conditions include an agreed address, wearing an ankle monitor and limits on his contact with others.
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