The Greater Manchester serial rapist who received 13 life sentences is making a fresh bid for freedom

A serial rapist who received 13 life sentences for his crimes is making another bid for freedom. Andrew Barlow, formerly known as Andrew Longmire, was released last year after 34 years in prison but was recalled to prison just six weeks later.

Now 67, predator Bolton was taken to a Probation Service hostel by a police escort on March 6 last year after his release. But he was returned to prison for breaching license conditions and for his behaviour. At the time, it was assessed that the risk he presented was not manageable in the community.

Barlow has now appealed against his recall to prison and a decision on whether he should be released again will be announced next week. But the prospect of him getting out again has angered the victims and their families, who have campaigned to keep him behind bars with the help of veteran Manchester MP Graham Stringer.

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A relative of one of his victims told the Manchester Evening News: “Last Wednesday there was a parole hearing into his recall last year after he was in the community for just six weeks after breaching some of the 32 of license conditions granted to him. He is an unsafe rapist who has not changed in my eyes.”

A Parole Board spokesman said: “An appeal against his recall to prison was made on June 19 and a decision will be announced by Wednesday next week.”

As previously reported in Manchester Evening News, Barlow’s release was delayed after then-Justice Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab asked the Parole Board to reconsider its decision.

Mr Raab described Barlow’s crimes as “despicable” and said in January 2023: “My thoughts go out to the victims of Andrew Barlow, whose despicable crimes have ruined the lives of dozens of women. Public protection is my number one priority, which is why I’ve asked the Parole Board to reconsider its release decision and I’m overhauling the parole system to keep inmates who pose a risk to the public off our streets.”

After Barlow’s swift return to prison in April 2023, Mr Stringer said: “It’s 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 an institutional failure of the highest order.”

A relative of a woman who Barlow raped in her own home in Greater Manchester in 1987 said in May last year, after the Manchester Evening News reported his recall to prison: “I took him on the chin in January and I decided to move on. with my life when Barlow was released – now this animal is back in our lives. We told the authorities and they didn’t listen.

“Someone has to answer for this. It will mean all the victims and their families relive the agony, as we had to do in January when we tried in vain to stop his release. We told the authorities it was too much of a risk and we would not proved right.

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

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

“When the casualty officer told me I had goosebumps all over my body and then my eyes welled 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 behavior meant an immediate recall to prison. I’m just glad he was monitored so closely because his behavior could have escalated.”

Barlow received 11 life sentences in 1988 for raping 11 women and a further 56 years for other offences. In 2010, and then again in 2017, he received two more life sentences for rapes he committed in 1981 and 1982, which were linked to him through advances in DNA technology. Because he had already exceeded the original 20-year tariff imposed in 1988, two more years were added to his sentence in each case.

He was nicknamed 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 again from August 1987 until January 1988, when he was arrested.

Barlow is banned from Greater Manchester and, in a summary of the decision to release him, the Parole Board said he will be subject to license conditions, which must be strictly adhered to.

Under the terms of the licence, he would have to comply with requirements to live at a designated address, be of good behaviour, disclose developing relationships and report as required for supervision or other appointments. In addition, he must submit to an enhanced form of supervision or monitoring, including drug testing, jail hours, GPS track monitoring, polygraph testing, and a specified time.

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

Last year, after Barlow’s recall, a Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “Protecting the public is our number one priority. That’s why offenders are subject to tough license conditions and when they break them, we don’t hesitate to return them to custody.”

In a statement, the Ministry of Justice added: “Andrew Longmire is being returned to custody today following a breach of his license conditions. His release will be a matter for the Parole Board. He has not been charged with any crime.

“Our Victims and Prisoners Act includes plans to reform the parole process, including giving ministers a veto on the release of the most dangerous offenders, including criminals, rapists and terrorists.”