Predator dubbed the ‘Coronation Street rapist’ is dead: Serial attacker, 69, who terrorised the North in the 1980s dies behind bars
Serial sex predator Andrew Davies who was dubbed the ‘Coronation Street rapist’ has died in jail.
Davies, formerly known as Andrew Barlow and Andrew Longmire, was given 13 life sentences for his crimes, which spread terror across the north of England in the 1980s.
The serial rapist from Bolton struck mainly in Greater Manchester, but also committed crimes in four other counties, targeting women alone often in their terraced homes after waiting for husbands or fathers to leave the property in the morning.
Davies was released in 2023 after 34 years in prison, but was recalled to prison just six weeks later.
It is understood Davies, 69, died from natural causes just over two weeks ago.
Today one of his victims, who was raped at knifepoint by Barlow in her own bed in 1987, told Manchester Evening News: ‘It’s a relief… but it isn’t. I still relive what he did to me. It is a very difficult feeling to handle.’
A Prison Service spokesperson said: ‘These were despicable crimes, and our thoughts remain with the victims of Andrew Davies.’
The predator was taken to a probation service hostel by a police escort on March 6, 2023 following his release, but was returned to prison for breach of his licence conditions and due to his behaviour. At the time it was assessed that the risk he posed was not manageable in the community.
Andrew Davies died in prison just over two weeks ago from natural causes aged 69
Andrew Davies, a serial sex attacker dubbed the ‘Coronation Street’ rapist, was once Britain’s most wanted man
Davies appealed against his recall at a hearing in June 2024. In July that year it was announced by the parole board that his application had been refused.
A panel decided he ‘would present a very high risk of a contact sexual offence at this time’. It added: ‘His risk of serious harm towards other people was considered to be very high.’
Davies was a prisoner at HMP Moorland, near Doncaster, a category C prison. A spokesperson for the prison service said: ‘Andrew Davies, previously called Andrew Barlow and Andrew Longmire, died on February 28 2026.
‘As with all deaths in custody the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will investigate.’
The prospect of his release angered victims and their families, who campaigned to keep him behind bars with the help of veteran Manchester MP Graham Stringer.
The relative of one of his victims told the Manchester Evening News in 2024: ‘A parole hearing took place in regards to his recall last year after being out in the community for just six weeks after he broke some of the 32 license conditions he was given. He is an unsafe rapist who hasn’t changed in my eyes.’
Barlow’s release was delayed after the then-Justice Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, Dominic Raab, asked the Parole Board to reconsider its decision.
Mr Raab described Barlow’s offences as ‘despicable’ and said in January 2023: ‘My thoughts remain with the victims of Andrew Barlow, whose despicable crimes blighted the lives of dozens of women.
Davies was freed on parole in March 2023, despite then-Justice Secretary Dominic Raab attempting to halt his release, slamming his crimes as ‘despicable’
‘Public protection is my number one priority, which is why I’ve asked the Parole Board to reconsider their decision to release and I am overhauling the parole system to keep prisoners who pose a risk to the public off our streets.’
After Barlow’s rapid return to prison in April 2023, Mr Stringer said: ‘It is extraordinary. I think this is another failure of the Parole Board to use common sense and protect the public from a very dangerous man.
‘They were warned by me and the victims. This is institutional failure of the highest order.’
A relative of a woman Barlow raped in her own home in Greater Manchester in 1987 said in May 2023 after the Manchester Evening News broke the news of his recall to prison: ‘I took it on the chin in January and decided to get on with my life when Barlow was released – now this animal is back in our lives again. We told the authorities and they didn’t listen.
‘Someone has to be accountable for this. It will mean all the victims and their families are reliving the agony again like we had to in January when we tried in vain to stop his release.
‘We told the authorities he was too high a risk and we have been proven right.’
The daughter of a woman whose mother was raped in Greater Manchester by Barlow in the early 1980s said: ‘I was shocked when I heard that he was being recalled so soon.
‘But then when I thought about how evil and twisted he was when committing his crimes it doesn’t surprise me.
The cold cases were eventually solved thanks to advances in DNA technology which linked Davies (pictured) to the crimes
‘When the victim support officer told me I had goosebumps all over my body and then my eyes swelled up with tears, I was thinking who has he attacked this time?
‘The officer told me that he had not hurt anyone but that his behaviour had meant an immediate recall to prison. I am just pleased he has been monitored so closely as his behaviour whatever it was could have escalated.’
Barlow was given 11 life sentences in 1988 for raping 11 women, and an additional 56 years for other offences.
In 2010, and then again in 2017, he received two more life sentences after rapes he committed in 1981 and 1982, which were linked to him through advances in DNA technology.
As he had already surpassed his original 20-year tariff imposed in 1988 just another two years were added to his sentence in each case.
He was dubbed ‘The Coronation Street rapist’ as most of the victims were attacked in their own terraced homes in the north of England, the majority living in Greater Manchester.
He also struck in Cheshire, Staffordshire, Lancashire, and South Yorkshire in the early 1980s, and then again from August 1987 until January 1988 when he was arrested.
Barlow was sought by police in the 1980s over 11 of the rapes.
During the hunt for him he evaded police at Leeds railway station and went on to shoot at two officers when he was finally arrested in Bebington, Merseyside.
The officers were not injured and Longmire was later convicted of their attempted murder.