Alan Reeve

Alan Reeve (born 1948) was a patient at Broadmoor secure psychiatric hospital in Britain; he had been sent there in 1964 after killing a friend when they were both 15. While in Broadmoor he obtained a sociology degree and strangled a fellow patient, Billy Doyle. In 1981 he escaped with the help of his girlfriend and remained at large for a year. He was arrested in the Netherlands in 1982 following a gun fight at a liquor store during which he killed chief constable Jaap Honingh. For this he was sentenced to 15 years in prison. He was released on parole in 1992 and Dutch courts refused to extradite him back to Britain; he lived for the next five years in Ireland until his arrest there in 1997. While at large he obtained a law degree in the Netherlands, fathered a son and worked as a typesetter for Cork Women's Poetry Circle. He spent another five months in Broadmoor before it was finally declared that he was no longer a threat to society. Died of cancer in Kenmare, Eire, 12 July 2016. He is survived by his wife and 5 children.