Rapist's 34 Years Of Escape Ends: Man Convicted Of 3 Rapes Fled MA Before Sentencing, Found Living in Maine After Three Decades
A rapist’s 34 years of hiding is over. The Massachusetts man who fled the state while waiting for his sentence three decades ago has been arrested in Maine. He had since married and started a family while using an assumed name outside Portland, police said Thursday.
Gary Allen Irving, who worked installing telephones in businesses, was residing in Gorham using the name Gregg Irving. He was arrested Wednesday night by Massachusetts and Maine State Police, Gorham police, and the FBI.
Maine State Police Sgt. Robert Burke said that, “He was surprised to find law enforcement on his front door.” Maine police didn’t say how authorities were led to Irving.
Irving, 52, is scheduled to appear in court Friday on charges of being fugitive from justice and being a felon possessing firearms.
He has been on the Massachusetts Top 10 Most Wanted list for decades. He’d fled in 1978 while awaiting sentencing for three rapes in Norfolk County, all of which carried the potential for life imprisonment, according to Massachusetts State Police.
In one of the rapes, he knocked the victim off her bike and dragged her to a secluded area, and raped her repeatedly; in another, he forced the victim into his car and threatened her with a knife, according to police.
In Gorham, Irving and his wife had no encounters with the police other than in 2006 when the wife was a victim of identity theft.
“They certainly blended into the community,” said Gorham Police Lt. Christopher Sanborn.
The couple now have an adult son and daughter who are in their 20s and a granddaughter, according to one of their neighbors, Leroy Dixon.
Police said the couple were watching TV and that a 3-year-old girl was inside the home when the police arrive Wednesday to arrest Irving.
Now that Maine police have knowledge of Irving’s identity and past, they’ll be reviewing unresolved rape cases to see if he could be possibly involved, said Steve McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.
Irving was held without bail Thursday at the Cumberland County Jail.
