text: Ireland said he was heterosexual: he had been twice married to women and that he pretended to be gay only to befriend potential victims. Ireland claimed that his murders were not sexually motivated. He was highly organised, and carried a full murder kit of rope, handcuffs and a full change of clothes to each murder. After killing his victim he cleaned the flat of any forensic evidence linking him to the scene and stayed in the flat until morning in order to avoid arousing suspicion from leaving in the middle of the night.
  Ireland was sentenced to five counts of life imprisonment for the murders on 20 December 1993 and remained imprisoned until his death on 21 February 2012, at the age of 57.
  Early life
  Ireland was born in 1954 in Dartford, Kent, to an unmarried teenage couple; shortly after his birth, his father left him and his 17-year-old. His father is not named on his birth certificate, and Ireland did not know his identity. He was raised in poverty and moved home many times. When his mother married and became pregnant she put Ireland into care, although he was later returned to her. She went on to remarry in 1966.
  During the 1960s in Sheerness, Kent, Ireland was propositioned on three occasions and spied on once by men who were paedophiles. In his mid-teens, he was sent to borstal for theft, and whilst there, deliberately set fire to another resident's belongings. At age 17, Ireland was convicted of robbery. He escaped and was returned to borstal.