Rapist on the run arrested after 30 years

A convicted rapist from Massachusetts who fled after being sentenced to life in prison more than 30 years ago has been arrested in Maine.

Gary Allen Irving, now 52, was sentenced to life in prison in 1979 after being found guilty on three counts of rape in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, the previous year, said Trooper Kenneth Gaetz, a Massachusetts State Police spokesman.

The judge in the case stayed the sentence for two days, allowing Irving to go home and make arrangements before starting his prison term.

During that time, Irving fled and police began a decades-long manhunt that ended on Wednesday night, when state troopers, acting on information obtained in recent days, arrested him at his home in Gorham, Maine, Massachusetts State Police said in a statement. He is scheduled to be arraigned on Friday as a fugitive from justice.

State police from Maine and Massachusetts, along with local police and FBI agents, found numerous guns at Irving's home, and he will face federal charges for illegal firearms possession, they said.

Irving had been accused of knocking one of his victims off her bike before bringing her to a secluded area and raping her repeatedly.

In another incident, he forced a victim into his car and threatened her with a knife if she didn't comply with his demands, according to Massachusetts State Police.

State police had been seeking Irving for decades and listed him among their Top Ten Most Wanted fugitives.

Irving, who had been living under the name Gregg Irving, is being held in Portland, Maine, police said.

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