Hunting the Hunter
An officer involved in one of the most high-profile decoy operations in our Force’s history has shared her story to help mark our 50th anniversary.
A new video gives a first-hand account of going undercover to snare a sexual predator who had terrorised the streets of Clifton, Redland and Westbury Park in Bristol, in the late 1970s.
Retired officer Michelle Leonard’s story will be shared on Facebook, Linked In and Instagram, as well as being presented in multiple, shorter episodes on TikTok.
Operation Argus was a high-risk and ahead of its time decoy operation, so secret that some departments within the force were unaware of its existence.
This operation was responsible for the capture and arrest of Ronald Evans, or the Clifton Rapist as he became known, who carried out a series of sexual attacks. Evans had previously been convicted of murdering 21-year-old Kathleen Heathcote in Mansfield in the early 1960s.
After eighteen months of investigating the attacks and with no concrete leads, except the sighting of a yellow Ford Capri at one of the scenes, police knew that it was time to try something different and this is where the idea for Operation Argus formed.
A decoy operation involved officers going undercover to try and lure out this prolific offender who had left women in the area afraid to venture out alone after dark.
One of these officers was PC Michelle Leonard, who was 24 years old and nine months into her police career at the time.
Talking about how the attack series had left the public feeling, she said: “There were a lot of demonstrations, leaflets given to the university, to give out to women, not to walk around on their own. I think some of them felt that they had to go around in twos all the time. They didn’t want to do that; they wanted to have the freedom to go about what they were doing without fear of attack.”
Michelle’s role was to walk a pre-planned route near to where previous attacks had taken place. Officers were spaced out along the route, hidden in gardens and communication was maintained via radios. “Any time you felt you were in danger; you could call it off”, Michelle said.
Talking about the night Ronald Evans was arrested, she explained: “As I’ve walked into Whiteladies Road, he (the sergeant) clocks this yellow Capri, which is in our system, having been around the scene of a rape. He realises that it (the driver) is identical to the photofit. That photofit was him.
“I just got up to Chantry Road when I heard on the radio that the Capri had pulled up to the Good Food, and the “driver was watching Michelle”.
“I’d got into the dark part of Clifton and I’m just about to cross into Chertsey Road when he said ‘the driver’s got out of the car. He’s following Michelle on foot’.
“There was a sort of delay and then it came back ‘attention everybody, this man is on life licence for murder and has previous convictions for rape’.
“I had a moment where I thought, should I give up, or should I continue, and I thought no, I’ve got to get under a streetlight.
“I could hear his footsteps – I was fine while I could hear his footsteps. As soon as I got to the streetlight, I couldn’t hear him anymore. As I turned around, there he was on my shoulder. He grabbed me around the throat, around the arm and said “don’t scream or I’ll kill you” and began to drag me back into the garden.
“That was enough for everybody to come out of the bushes, people in the cars all turned up, he realised he had been caught, hit me, pushed me down to the ground and started running. Luckily at the end of the road was another officer, and he was arrested.”
Ronald Evans, who was 38 at the time of his arrest, was jailed for committing sexual offences against five women. He was further convicted of offences against a further two women in 2015, following which he received an additional 10-year jail sentence.
Evans was released after a total of 57 years in November 2018 before re-offending, and being returned to prison in 2023, where, now in his eighties, he remains to this day.
Reflecting on her role in his conviction for the sexual offence series, Michelle added: “I feel quite proud that I’d been involved in such a job, where somebody so evil was taken off the streets.”
Credit to ITV for the historical news footage used