A notorious serial killer and rapist died in an Irish jail last month at the age of 69 after spending more than three years in a coma. Geoffrey Evans had suffered a stroke during a heart operation in December 2008. With his accomplice and fellow Englishman, John Shaw, who is now 70, Evans was convicted in 1978 of savage crimes involving the rape and murder of two women. When Evans lapsed into unconsciousness, prison officers initially operated a daily guard at his bedside around the clock for 16 months, at a cost of about €1.5 million. Nonetheless the government persevered and refused to hasten his death.

A source told an Irish paper that Evans received no visitors from his home in the UK during his stay in hospital. "A number of women from a local Protestant church group used to visit him - but that was it. Shaw has some contact with his family in the UK, but Evans had nobody." ~ Belfast Telegraph, May 22; Sunday World, Jun 13