THE CASE OF Elizabeth Plunkett, the 23-year-old victim of Ireland’s first serial killers, was raised today in the Dáil following the publication of a new podcast on her murder.

Elizabeth’s family are seeking a cold case review into her death.

A new RTÉ podcast narrated by Roz Purcell was recently released which examines the 1970s murder.

In 1976, Elizabeth, from Ringsend, was murdered by Ireland’s first serial killers, John Shaw and Geoffrey Evans. 

The pair then killed a second woman, Mary Duffy. 

Shaw was convicted of Mary Duffy’s murder but was never convicted of Elizabeth’s. 

Elizabeth’s sisters are now continuing their long fight for justice for their sister and want gardaí to open a cold case review and legally recognise them as victims.

Raising the matter in the Dáil today, Labour leader Ivana Bacik noted that the pair, Kathleen and Bernadette, are not regarded as victims of the Parole Board, an issue that came to light in 2023. 

She asked the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, to rectify this issue and help bring some closure to the family. 

Responding to Bacik, the Taoiseach said he will ask the Minister for Justice to deal directly with her and with Elizabeth’s family in an effort to bring closure.

The killers

In 1976, Englishmen John Shaw and Geoffrey Evans set out to rape and murder women in Ireland.

The two men had fled to this island after being released from prison in the UK.

According to Stephen Rae’s book, Killers: Murders in Ireland, the two men were subject of a manhunt by British forces in connection with the rape of three girls, one of whom was the 16-year-old daughter of a police officer.

They soon came to the attention of the authorities here and were up in court for a number of crimes including burglary. Shaw, already a father of three children at this point, had a string of convictions against him. He was previously imprisoned for attempted rape as well as for indecently assaulting a young boy.

His partner in crime Geoffrey Evans, a father of two, also had a remarkable rap sheet.

In 1975, Shaw was imprisoned for 18 months for burglary, while Evans served just three weeks. Upon their release in 1976, the two began to plan how they would go about finding, raping and murdering women.

The two men would go on to abduct, torture, rape and murder, Elizabeth Plunkett (22) and Mary Duffy (24) in Wicklow and Mayo later that year.

With reporting from Christina Finn