A killer and rapist who spent more than half a century in prison before being released by the Parole Board has been jailed for carrying out a further sexual assault at the age of 81.
Ron Evans, who killed a young woman in the 1960s, and in the 1970s was known as the “Clifton rapist” for a series of attacks in Bristol, was jailed for another four years at the Old Bailey in London after being convicted of assaulting a woman he had befriended at a drop-in centre.
Questions are being raised about why Evans, now 82, was released and the effectiveness of his monitoring. He revealed in court that he had not told his probation officer that he was volunteering at a centre attended by vulnerable women.
Judge Francis told Evans he was intelligent and had manipulated his victim to satisfy his sexual needs. She said: “It is apparent that time has done nothing to change the fact that you are a sexual predator. It seems to me the risk that you pose to women is significant.”
The judge told Evans he would serve at least two years before he could be considered for release again. She added: “It may be that the Parole Board may exercise a greater degree of caution in the future. I believe there is a serious risk you will commit serious sexual offences in the future [if released].”
Outside court, Pragati Patel, a senior crown prosecutor, said: “Ron Evans presented himself as a harmless pensioner volunteering in his local community. But in reality, and despite his age, he was still very much a deviant sexual predator waiting for his next opportunity.”
Evans was convicted in 1964 for the rape and murder of Kathleen Heathcote, a 21-year-old shop worker who vanished from her home in Nottinghamshire. He was jailed for life but served only 11 years before being released on licence, and moved to Bristol.
During an 18-month period from the summer of 1977, seven women were sexually assaulted in the Clifton, Redland and Westbury Park areas of the city.
In January 1979 police launched an undercover operation in which young female officers wearing plainclothes and male officers dressed up as women were sent out on to the streets to try to draw the attacker out.
On the last night of the operation, an officer called Michelle Leonard was grabbed by a man who told her: “Don’t scream or I’ll kill you,” and started to drag her into a garden. Leonard pushed him away and the man was caught by a colleague. It turned out to be Evans, who admitted five attacks and was sent back to prison.
At the time there was concern that he had been released after the murder of Kathleen Heathcote. “Life should mean life,” Leonard said in the ITV News film Decoy, which told the story of Evans’ capture.
In 2004, while Evans was still in jail, a cold case team linked him forensically with two other attacks in Bristol that he had denied, and a judge said it was likely he would never be released.
But Evans was freed in 2018 and began to work as a volunteer at a centre in London. During his trial at a London crown court, it was alleged that over a three-year period he sexually assaulted a woman with disabilities.
The jury heard he was convicted of sexual offences in the 1970s and had spent many years in prison but did not hear he was the Clifton rapist and a convicted killer.
Evans told the court he was a reformed character and had “a lot of remorse” over his previous offending.
