Rapist’s plea for a ‘softer’ prison

PRISON challenge . . . Andrew Longmire

A “psychopathic” serial rapist has launched a High Court battle to be moved to a less secure prison.

Oldham’s Andrew Longmire (54) was given a life sentence at Sheffield Crown Court last year after he admitted raping a woman in her own home in the Sharrow area of the city in 1981.

That sentence was added to 11 life terms Longmire was already serving in a high security prison for a series of sickening sex attacks in the Manchester area in the 1980s.

But less than a year after his most recent conviction, Longmire has launched a High Court bid to have his prison security status downgraded.

His lawyers now claim it was “unreasonable” for the prison authorities to reject his application for a downgrade without hearing oral evidence.

Longmire carried out a campaign of terror against young women in and around Manchester in the 1980s, before going on the run when police launched a hunt for him.

In one attack he broke into a woman’s home wielding a screwdriver before raping her in front of her young child.

He was finally caught and jailed for life at Manchester Crown Court in 1988 for 11 rapes, three attempted rapes and firearms offences.

He admitted the further rape at Sheffield Crown Court last year after police “cold case” reviewers used DNA evidence to close the book of another of his crimes.

Longmire, who has completed a degree course in prison and is taking a masters in environmental policy, applied to be downgraded last year, citing a number of courses he had carried out and favourable references from prison staff.

But he was turned down in October after the director of high security prisons put his references down to “psychopathic charm” and pointed to the fact that he had only just admitted one of his many rapes as a sign he was still a danger.

At judicial review proceedings brought before London’s High Court yesetdray, his lawyers claimed that decision was “unreasonable”, and he should have been given a full oral hearing to show the progress he had made.

Recognising the importance of the case, Mr Justice Nicol has now reserved judgement in the matter, which will be given at an unspecified date later in the year.