‘Coronation Street’ rapist Andrew Barlow given 13 life sentences makes bid to be released from jail

Andrew Barlow is making a new bid for freedom. Photo / File

The “Coronation Street” rapist, one of Britain’s most dangerous sex attackers, is seeking to be released from jail despite being convicted of 13 life sentences.

The parole board is expected to announce tomorrow whether Andrew Barlow, dubbed the Coronation Street rapist because of the way he attacked victims in their own terraced homes, can be released on parole.

Barlow, 68, from Bolton in Lancashire, was once Britain’s most wanted man after a string of sex assaults on women and girls across five counties during the 1980s.

He spent just 34 years in jail after being convicted of 11 rapes, three attempted rapes, indecent assault and using a firearm to resist arrest.

He was subsequently found guilty of two further rapes in 2010 and 2017, both committed during the 1980s. The final two convictions were for offences committed in 1981 and 1982.

In the first, he raped a woman in front of her three-year-old child, who was hiding behind the settee in their home.

In 2017, Barlow was convicted again – this time of the rape of a 15-year-old girl in Great Lever, Bolton, in January 1982.

He went into the girl’s home about 8.45am, when she was alone in her bedroom, after her parents had left the house. He threatened the “petrified” girl with a knife and raped her.

The cold cases were solved through DNA technology.

Barlow admitted the attacks but said he could not remember them.

Barlow, formerly known as Andrew Longmire, was released from prison in March last year, only to be recalled six weeks later, and he has now launched an attempt to try to win his freedom.

Dominic Raab, the former justice secretary, objected to the parole board’s original plans to release him, describing his crimes as “despicable”. He argued that the panel which sanctioned Barlow’s release “failed to take proper account of the evidence regarding risk and in particular the expert psychology evidence”.

This was based on slightly differing reports from two psychologists about the safety of Barlow’s release – one declared him safe, while another said he should be “further tested in open [jail]” before being confirmed for release.

The Parole Board rejected Raab’s application in February, saying that “there has been no misdirection of law” and the panel had considered “all the evidence”.

In May last year, the Government confirmed that Barlow had been recalled to prison after an unspecified breach of his conditions.