Colin Ireland

Colin Ireland (born 16 March 1954) is a British serial killer known as the "Gay Slayer" because he killed gay men. Ireland, who had picked up convictions for burglary and robbery in his twenties, decided to become a serial killer as a New Year resolution at the beginning of 1993. That year, while living in Southend, he started frequenting The Coleherne pub, a gay pub in west London. It was known as a place where men cruised for sexual partners and wore colour coded handkerchiefs that indicated their preferred role. Ireland sought men who liked the passive role and sadomasochism, so he could readily restrain them as they initially believed it was a sexual game. Ireland claimed to be heterosexual — he had been married — and that he...