‘Gay slayer’ dies in Yorkshire prison

Colin Ireland, 57, is presumed to have died from natural causes in the healthcare centre of Wakefield Prison yesterday, a Prison Service spokeswoman said.

He was given a whole-life tariff in 1993.

A Prison Service spokeswoman said: “As with all deaths in custody, the independent Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will conduct an investigation.”

One of Britain’s worst serial killers, former soldier Ireland admitted attacking and killing five gay men he met in pubs in 1993.

Known as the “gay slayer”, he reportedly posed as a homosexual to be taken to each of his victims’ homes, where he tortured and murdered them after making a New Year’s resolution in 1993 to become a serial killer. But Ireland, who terrorised London’s gay community, was caught later the same year when CCTV footage showed him with his last victim.

A report by the independent Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Advisory Group found that the Metropolitan Police inquiry was “hampered” by a lack of knowledge of London’s gay scene.