Stolen Sister: 06 - Irrelevant Victims

Where is Jón?

RTÉ

Society & Culture, True Crime, Documentary

4.5 • 717 Ratings

🗓️ 4 July 2025

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Having lived over 40 years with the loss of Elizabeth, the Plunkett family are taken aback when in 2023, they’re approached by the Parole Board. John Shaw is looking to get out of prison. Elizabeth’s family are invited to submit their views on his potential release. Can they stop him from getting freedom? This process unlocks a series of events where Elizabeth's siblings begin to realise that nothing is as it seems - and that their sister is still awaiting dignity and justice…

If you have any information or knowledge about the actions of John Shaw and Geoffrey Evans please email us [email protected]

Credits: Stolen Sister is written and produced by Nicoline Greer with production assistance from Shauna McGreevy. Roz Purcell is the host. Original music soundtrack performed and composed by Oscar-winning composer Stephen Warbeck, together with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra. Sound design and orchestra recording by Ciarán Dunne. The executive producer is Liam O’Brien. Audio Product Support by Nigel Wheatley. Marketing by Maria Buckley and Christopher Hayes. Design and creatives by Darragh Treacy. Publicity by Sarah Neville. Sales by Graeme Bailey and additional online editorial content by Anna Joyce. Publishing weekly.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	In the years after the trials, history began to record John Shaw and Geoffrey Evans
0:06.7	as convicted serial killers. Irish Press, January 21st, 1983. Englishman Geoffrey Evans was
0:14.5	attacked by a group of prisoners, one wielding a hammer, but Mountjoy Prison on Monday evening.
0:20.6	Evans and his accomplice Shaw were convicted of the murder of Dublin girl Elizabeth Plunkett
0:25.0	of Ringsend and Castle Bar Girl, Mary Duffy.
0:29.1	Through the following decades, Sean Evans would occasionally feature in the news.
0:33.7	But when they did, coverage suggested each of them had been convicted of all crimes against Mary and Elizabeth.
0:41.8	Irish Examiner 24th November 2004. Serial killers unlikely to walk free.
0:48.7	Fears that the state's only known serial killers could soon be set free.
0:53.0	And this was the narrative that Plunkett family always believed
0:56.1	that Shaw and Evans had been convicted of Elizabeth's murder.
1:01.1	In 2009, Geoffrey Evans had a massive stroke
1:04.6	which left him in a coma for three years.
1:06.8	Well, a chapter in one of the most notorious crimes ever committed in these islands
1:12.3	closed in the last 24 hours with the death of Geoffrey Evans.
1:18.2	John Evans killed a number of women.
1:21.2	When Geoffrey Evans died, no family members came forward to claim his body.
1:26.6	He was buried by the Irish Prison service in an unmarked grave.
1:30.3	John Shaw.
1:31.0	Shaw is still alive as we know and still in custody.
1:33.5	He's still in jail.
1:34.3	He'll rot there.
	...

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