May 2023

Serial rapist handed 13 life sentences for his despicable crimes is back in jail after six WEEKS

A serial rapist who destroyed lives across Greater Manchester has been recalled to prison just six WEEKS after being released.

Andrew Barlow, formerly known as Andrew Longmire, was handed 13 life sentences for his evil crimes but was allowed out of jail after 34 years.

Now aged 66, the Bolton predator was taken to a Probation Service hostel by police escort on March 6th this year after his release. But he is now back in prison for breach of his licence conditions and due to his behaviour

It has been assessed that the risk he poses is now not manageable in the community.

The development has angered victims and the families of Barlow who campaigned to keep him behind bars with the help of veteran Manchester MP, Graham Stringer.

Barlow’s release was delayed after the then Justice Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, Dominic Raab, asked the Parole Board to reconsider its decision.

Barlow was given 11 life sentences in 1988 for raping 11 women and an additional 56 years for other offences.

In 2010, and then again in 2017, he received two more life sentences after rapes he committed in 1981 and 1982 which were linked to him through advances in DNA technology.

As he had already surpassed his original 20-year tariff imposed in 1988 just another two years were added to his sentence in each case.

He was dubbed ‘The Coronation Street rapist’ as most of the victims were attacked in their own terraced homes in the north of England – the majority living in Greater Manchester. Two of the attacks took place in the street.

He also struck in Cheshire, Staffordshire, Lancashire, and South Yorkshire in the early 1980s, and then agaain from August 1987 until January 1988 when he was arrested.

Mr Raab described Barlow’s offences as “despicable” and said in January: “My thoughts remain with the victims of Andrew Barlow, whose despicable crimes blighted the lives of dozens of women. Public protection is my number one priority, which is why I’ve asked the Parole Board to reconsider their decision to release and I am overhauling the parole system to keep prisoners who pose a risk to the public off our streets.”

Today, after Barlow’s return to prison, Mr Stringer said: “It is extraordinary. I think this is another failure of the Parole Board to use common sense and protect the public from a very dangerous man. They were warned by me and the victims. This is institutional failure of the highest order.”

A relative of a woman Barlow raped in her own home in Greater Manchester in 1987 said: “I took it on the chin in January and decided to get on with my life when Barlow was released – now this animal is back in our lives again. We told the authorities and they didn’t listen.

“Someone has to be accountable for this. It will mean all the victims and their families are reliving the agony again like we had to in January when we tried in vain to stop his release. We told the authorities he was too high a risk and we have been proven right.

“I will like to sit down with someone from the Parole Board face to face and tell them what happened to our family because of Barlow – not submit an email like I had to in January.”

The daughter of a woman whose mother was raped in Greater Manchester by Barlow in the early 1980s said: “I was shocked when I heard that he was being recalled so soon. But then when I thought about how evil and twisted he was when committing his crimes it doesn’t surprise me.

“When the victim support officer told me I had goose bumps all over my body and then my eyes swelled up with tears, I was thinking who has he attacked this time. The officer told me that he had not hurt anyone but that his behaviour had meant an imemdiate recall to prison.

“I am just pleased he has been monitored so closely as his behaviour whatever it was could have escalated.”

Barlow is barred from Greater Manchester and in its summary of the decision to release him, the Parole Board said he would be subject to licence conditions. which must be strictly adhered to.

Under the licence conditions he will had to comply with requirements to reside at a designated address, to be of good behaviour, to disclose developing relationships, and to report as required for supervision or other appointments.

In addition, he must submit to an enhanced form of supervision or monitoring including drug testing, signing-in times, GPS trail monitoring, polygraph testing and a specified curfew.

Barlow had to comply with other identified limitations concerning contacts, activities, residency and an exclusion zone to avoid contact with victims. He also had to meet specified restrictions relating to the use of electronic technology and continue to work on addressing defined areas of risk in the community.

October 2017

Rapist given his thirteenth life sentence

A SERIAL rapist who attacked a 15-year-old girl in her own home has been given his thirteenth life sentence.

Andrew Barlow, who is also known as Andrew Longmire, became the country’s most wanted man after a string of sickening sex attacks across Greater Manchester in the 1980s.

The 61-year-old, who has been in prison since 1988, was already serving 12 life terms for 12 separate rapes across Greater Manchester and was yesterday given a 13th, after pleading guilty to raping the teenager at her terraced house in Great Lever in January, 1982.

Bolton Crown Court heard that Barlow, who appeared via videolink from HMP Wymott, in Leyland, went into the girl’s home at around 8.45am, when she was alone in her bedroom.

David Temkin, prosecuting, said that Barlow had threatened the ‘petrified’ girl with a knife and pulled off her clothes before raping her.

Barlow was linked to the case after cold case detectives re-opened it in 2009.

Advances in DNA technology that meant they were now able to identify him as the attacker and he was arrested at HMP Wymott in June this year.

At the time of his offending Barlow was dubbed by the media as the ‘Coronation Street Rapist’ because many of his attacks took place in terrace houses.

Martin Bottomley, head of Greater Manchester Police’s Cold Case Unit, said: “This is a great result for the victim, bringing her comfort, and to further safeguard the public from this man, who in my view still poses a threat.”

Zahra Baqri, defending, told the court that Barlow ‘has suffered from a psychopathic disorder’ and had made ‘positive changes’ while in prison.

He was re-categorised from being a category A prisoner to category B in 2013, and then moved to Wymott in 2015 when he became a category C prisoner.

She added: “The majority of the offences were all similar in nature and he instructs me that, as such, he did not specifically remember this particular incident.

“I accept that such a comment is a highly disturbing one to make — but that is his explanation.

“He is acutely aware of the additional stress that this case, resurrecting itself after so many years, will cause the victim, a lady, who is doubtless asking why did he not confess all those years ago.”

Honorary Recorder of Bolton, Judge Timothy Clayson, ordered Barlow to serve a life sentence, with a minimum of two years before he will be eligible to apply for parol