London's Serial Killer

The Crimes of Colin Ireland

By: Mark Stokes

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

In the early 1990s, London became the hunting ground for a man driven by obsession, resentment and a need for notoriety. London’s Serial Killer tells the disturbing true story of Colin Ireland — a man who deliberately set out to become a serial killer, carefully planning his crimes and seeking recognition for the terror he caused. Targeting gay men he met through newspaper adverts and chance encounters, Ireland transformed private homes into scenes of calculated brutality, leaving a city grappling with fear and disbelief.

This book reconstructs the investigation that unfolded as bodies were discovered across the capital. You’ll follow detectives as they identify chilling patterns in the killings, trace Ireland’s movements, and close in on a suspect who craved attention even as he attempted to outsmart the police. Drawing on a range of sources, the narrative tracks Ireland’s meticulous preparations, his taunting behaviour after arrest, and the courtroom proceedings that revealed a man more concerned with legacy than remorse.

But London’s Serial Killer goes beyond the mechanics of murder. It explores how isolation, ego and hatred combined to create a killer who saw violence as a route to significance, and how prejudice and vulnerability left his victims exposed. It examines the wider impact on London’s LGBTQ+ community and the long shadow cast by crimes rooted in obsession rather than impulse. For readers seeking true crime that is unsettling, psychologically sharp and grounded in real consequence, this book offers a chilling portrait of a killer who wanted to be remembered — and the lives forever marked by his pursuit of infamy.