Chapter 1: What stories of victims are highlighted in this episode?
Throughout this series, we've been telling the stories of Elizabeth Plunkett and Mary Duffy, victims of John Shaw and Geoffrey Evans. But there are other victims too, other families who never got justice. Remember, when the two men first came to Ireland, they were on the run from charges relating to three women in the Greater Manchester area.
Wow.
Now we know that true crime podcasts are hugely popular and the makers of a brand new one from Ireland need your help.
Producer Liam O'Brien recently appeared on BBC Radio Manchester seeking new information around Shaw and Evans.
they actually got to know each other in prison. Once they got out, they kind of went on a rampage around the Greater Manchester area through October 1974, and they raped three young women, a 15-year-old girl near Macclesfield, a 31-year-old lady near Ince and then a 17-year-old girl near Atherton. Actually quite a huge manhunt for them.
We don't know the lifelong trauma that these women and their families may have endured.
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Chapter 2: What new evidence has emerged about John Shaw and Geoffrey Evans?
Those women never got justice. They never got what they deserved, which is the men who attacked them to face the courts for what they had done to them. We're hopeful that these women are alive and that they may still want...
And in the six weeks since we began this podcast, we've discovered that there were yet more lives touched by Shaw and Evans. I'm Ros Purcell from RT Documentary on One. This is Stolen Sister. Episode 7, A Chance for Justice. In the month Sean Evans murdered Elizabeth and Mary, we can see they moved around the country a lot, constantly looking to break into houses, pubs and caravans.
While doing this, they were also looking for victims. We've been asking you to get in touch if you've any information on the actions of John Shaw and Geoffrey Evans. We hoped for some new witnesses to come forward, but we've been taken aback by just how many people got in touch. We're going to share some of the accounts of these new witnesses in this episode, mostly voiced by actors.
We've put these new witnesses in touch with James McGill, the Plunkett family's solicitor.
We believe that if a decision was taken not to prosecute John Shaw for this murder, it was in all probability influenced by a view that there was inadequate corroborative evidence of his confession. People have come forward once they started hearing the podcast.
So there is evidence available that would not have formed part of the case file at the time of trial that may justify a cold case review at this stage.
So these new witnesses are critically important to the hopes of the Plunkett family to get Gardaí to open a cold case review, which could potentially lead to the DPP finally putting John Shaw on trial for murdering Elizabeth. If we go back to where the series began, on the 28th of August 1976,
Elizabeth and her friends were making their way to British Bay, and Shaw and Evans were also travelling from Dublin to Wicklow. I was at the bus stop in Blackrock. This is Dolores, and in 1976, she was a young mother who had a brief but troubling encounter in South County Dublin with two men in a car with English accents.
I'm standing there minding my own business, and next time this car comes along... And I went past and then I came back and stopped and said, hi, we're going your way, we're hopping and we'll give you a lift. And I said, excuse me? And I thought, yeah, right. I said, no way. And he says, oh, come on. And I said, I didn't even say no, thank you. So he drove off.
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Chapter 3: How are new witnesses contributing to the case of Elizabeth Plunkett?
And the next thing, a small white van came up and pulled us outside, close to where the mobile home was. Two men got out of the little van. I remember they were older than us and a bit rough looking.
I didn't like the look of them, definite English accent. They wanted to come in and have tea with us. And, you know, we kept saying, no, no, you can't come in with nothing, you know.
So eventually they said they'd go down and get tea and sugar and biscuits and whatever and they'd be back. The girls went out to a disco and her two aunts stayed behind in the mobile home. Then around midnight, the van came into the field, started circling the caravan and shouting and banging on the door and wanted to come in. And my aunts, you know, were shouting at the window.
So I think when they realised it wasn't the two girls, they realised and they left then.
My father had a friend, he was an inspector in the guards and we were talking to him about it and he said yes, it's more than likely them because they were in the area at the time.
The reports we've been getting match the places and the timeline of Sean Evans in Ireland. We know that after they murdered Elizabeth they left Wicklow and went back to Feathered in County Tipperary which they used as a base borrowing cars from locals to travel around the country and commit crimes. We received a report as far north as County Cavan.
This man shared a vivid memory of an incident at the end of the summer of 1976 when he was a teenager and had just said goodbye to two female friends.
No more than 10 minutes later, they ran back towards us, screaming, saying that a car had just pulled up alongside them. Two men had jumped out and tried to push them into the back seats of the car. The girls were fit and strong and fought back and screamed. They were in a panic when they reached us. Shortly after, they began pointing at a car driving towards us.
And that was the two men who tried to abduct them. I saw the passenger quite clearly. He was a scruffy, thin-faced man. Having listened to your series and looked at some photographs of John Shaw and Geoffrey Evans, I believe the two men who tried to abduct my friend's sister and her friend could well have been them.
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Chapter 4: What incidents occurred in Ireland that relate to Shaw and Evans?
Then you got back on to thank Ivana for what she did. Yes, I did. And we were so happy. Yes. But it was very short with Micheál Martin, a little vague. We sent a letter to the Minister for Justice on the 7th of March. 16 weeks later, towards the end of our production, we received a reply. At this stage, they are still trying to find records.
The department has undertaken a preliminary search of records. Work is ongoing to retrieve and review records on file. When this is complete, the department will be able to consider the request related to the release... With attention now on this case, the Plunketts are waiting and hoping. John Shaw has just turned 80. The Plunketts want a cold case review to happen soon.
Even though Elizabeth is never far from their minds, life goes on for the Plunkett family. It's just self-preservation. It's like...
Chapter 5: What details do witnesses provide about their encounters with Shaw and Evans?
You have to get on with your day. You have kids to rear, a job to do. I kind of have to have a little chat with myself and count my blessings and say good morning and just fake it till you make it. They often think of what life might have been like for Elizabeth. She would have had her family now. She'd have flourished in her life. She really would. And that was taken from her at 23 years of age.
And Mary Duffy's family also live with the lifelong trauma of having lost their beloved sister in such a violent way. Just a couple of months ago, at the peaceful location of Loch Aine, A new bench was put in, in honour of Mary Duffy. We put a seat for Mary near enough to where the body was found, in Lough Hainna.
My daughter said to me, wouldn't it be nice to have some memory of Mary? So I said, yeah. I just put in a lovely memory of Mary Duffy, from the Duffy family. God bless them all that day. But the only thing that can keep you going is lovely memories of them.
This is the new batch of Easter water. I'm told when I went over to the church at Ring's End. So, there we go. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. Back in Dean's Grange Cemetery, Bernie and Kathleen are visiting Elizabeth's grave. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. Now, I'll just pour the water.
Bernie, Kathleen and their other sister Joan come here regularly and always on Elizabeth's birthday. Just say a little prayer to ourselves. The days when we'd come and go to the grave were so sad that one year we said, you know what, we're going to celebrate this year.
Myself, Joan and Kathleen would say, we're going to have a day out, we're going to book a meal and after we go to Liz, we're going to take her with us and speak about it for the whole day of all the good times that we had and not let it be so sad anymore because you have to accept things in life
Hello, can you hear me? Hey, Stephen, how are you? Can you hear us? I can hear you, yes.
All of the music you've heard in this series has been composed by Stephen Warbeck. He's an Oscar-winning composer who has composed for a wide range of TV and film. Hi, Stephen.
Hello, everybody.
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