As she got out of her car into the cold night, rookie officer Michelle Tighe knew she was putting her life at risk.
For a year and a half, a sinister sex addict stalked the streets of Bristol, carrying out a series of horrific attacks on women.
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Michelle, 23, was recruited as a “honey trap” as part of an undercover police operation in a bid to catch her rapist.
Inexperienced police officers, some as young as 18, had to take turns walking the streets at night in the areas of Clifton where the predator had struck.
And they were told that to make an arrest, they must first let the monster attack them.
It was in March 1979 – in the final push of the operation, before it was shut down amid rising costs – that Michelle hit the nail on the head.
She wasn’t supposed to be on street patrol that night, but she had swapped shifts with a colleague who needed to attend court during the day.
Within minutes of being dropped off to begin her undercover mission, Michelle found herself face to face with Ronald Evans, nicknamed the Clifton Rapist, who immediately lined her up as his next victim.
Recalling the terrifying moment, retired police officer, now Michelle Leonard, told The Sun: “He grabbed me by the throat and said: ‘Don’t scream or I’ll kill you.’
“He started dragging me back to one of the gardens, which is what he used to do.
“With that, everyone ran away because there were police officers hiding in the bush.
“I screamed, ‘Don’t let him get away.’
“With that, he hit me and pushed me to the ground before running away.
“I think he realized he had been tricked.
“He was captured further down the road and was later arrested for assault.”
It emerged that at the time of the sting, Evans was out on license for the sexually motivated murder of a 21-year-old shop worker 15 years earlier.
Thanks in part to Michelle, he was later arrested and served 39 years for multiple sexual attacks in Bristol.
He grabbed me by the throat and said, ‘Don’t scream or I’ll kill you.’
Michelle
Today, the retired police officer’s extraordinary bravery has been largely forgotten.
But now their heroic efforts are detailed in a new book about the chilling case, called Decoy, by Robert Murphy.
Reflecting on being targeted, Michelle, now 69, says: “It was like something you would see on television.
“A split second after I got out of the car, his yellow Capri turned the corner.
“He saw me alone and turned around before starting to follow me on foot down the road.
‘THERE HE WAS ON MY SHOULDER’
“He could have just looked at me and walked away.”
An officer monitoring the situation spotted Evans’ engine and recognized it in the police identification kit.
Analysis of the database record revealed the man’s identity.
Police then discovered that married father and electrician Evans had been jailed for raping and murdering shop worker Kathleen Heathcote in Nottingham in 1964.
He was released from prison in 1975 after serving 11 years, before moving to Bristol where he lived with his second wife.
It was like something you would see on television
Michelle
After turning off the main road and heading into the dark side streets, Michelle heard the police officer say over the radio: “Attention everyone, this man is on life sentence for murder, has previous convictions for rape.”
She recalls: “I said, swallowed hard, ‘keep walking, I have to go under a lamp post’.
“I did, and I turned around and there he was on my shoulder.”
Asked what was going through her mind when Evans attacked, Michelle said: “I just thought, ‘Oh, honey. Oh God’.
“It all happened so fast, it was a flash.
“As soon as he put his hand on me, they all left.
“Everyone was saying, ‘Get him, get him.’ It was chaos.”
Evans’ reign of terror began in the early hours of July 16, 1977, in Clifton, a year before WPC Michelle joined the force.
In total, seven women were sexually assaulted, sparking protests across the city.
Under increasing pressure to capture the attacker, police launched Operation Argus in January 1979, using ten young, inexperienced officers as bait.
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Mother-of-two Michelle, who now lives in Wool, Dorset, with her second husband, retired driver Stephen Leonard, 66, says: “They would have police officers run a set route three nights a week, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday . .
“We all took turns and, of course, we were young and we wanted to show that we were capable.
“But the only caveat was that at every meeting we were told we would have to let him attack us to make an arrest.
“Interestingly enough, I was one of the older women.
“Some former cadets were 18, 19 years old.
“And we were willing to do it because with all the women protesting about not being able to walk the streets, we felt like we could do something to make a difference.”
The young officers received basic self-defense training before leaving and were kept under surveillance by several male officers who hid among the bushes.
Michelle recalls: “We didn’t get paid overtime, but the guys did.”
There were no stab-proof vests and women were not even armed with batons during secret patrols.
Everyone wanted him to get caught because he was a thorn in our side
Michelle
Michelle explains: “It wasn’t allowed.
“You didn’t want anything that could be grabbed, so we just had a big radio around our neck, under our coat, with an earpiece.”
During the three-month operation, a form of healthy competition developed between the female police officers, all eager to be the ones to catch the demon.
Michelle says: “I think we all maybe felt, ‘Tonight is the night’ when we were doing our shift.
“But when the night came to an end, it would be, ‘Not tonight. There’s always tomorrow.’
“There was great camaraderie between everyone.
“Everyone wanted him to get caught because he was a thorn in our side.”
Around 200 officers were involved in the operation, with some young male recruits also acting as decoys.
Michelle says: “We had to dress two men in women’s clothing and put makeup on them.”
The operation was innovative for the time.
Michelle says: “When I first joined, female officers weren’t even allowed to go out at night.
‘I had nightmares that it had burst’
“It was something that had never been tried before.
“I can’t imagine they would allow any 18- or 19-year-old to do that now.”
Michelle says she doesn’t like hearing police officers who took part in the undercover operation being labeled “honey traps”.
Asked how she feels about the term, Michelle says: “I actually find it quite offensive, because I was dressed in jeans, a coat and flat shoes.
“I looked like a student coming home.
“So when people call it a honey trap, it’s like we’re staggering around in high heels and barely wearing any clothes, but we’re not.”
The officers also had to be extremely careful not to cross the trap line.
Michelle says: “We couldn’t give him any defense that we induced or induced him, because that could collapse the whole trial if it went to court.
“But I had to let him attack me and I don’t think they would do that now.”
Immediately after her ordeal, Michelle was taken in a police car to give a statement at the police station, before returning home for a cup of tea.
At the time I had nightmares
Michelle
The next morning, she woke up to find a bouquet of flowers from the Chief Superintendent.
She also received numerous letters of thanks from Bristol women.
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His most precious correspondence was a letter from Kathleen’s tragic brother, who had moved to Australia.
Michelle says: “He said, ‘I’m Kathleen’s brother and I just want to thank you for everything you’ve done.’”
Of the effect the attack had on her, Michelle says: “At the time, I was having nightmares.
“I woke up thinking he had escaped from prison, but that passed. There was no well-being as there would be now.
“You would do an assessment now to make sure he was OK, but there was nothing.
“It happened on Thursday. I had Saturday and Sunday off and went back to work on Monday.”
Evans was convicted and arrested in July 1979.
He remained in prison until released on license in 2018, before moving to London the following year.
He was sent back to prison last November after being found guilty of sexually assaulting a “vulnerable” woman in Wembley, north London, in July 2022.
The 82-year-old is believed to be Britain’s oldest prisoner.
Michelle says: “He obviously has a problem with women and shouldn’t be allowed to go out again.”
He obviously has issues with women and shouldn’t be allowed to go out again
Michelle
The Sun ran a story when the WPC received the Queen’s Commendation for Brave Conduct in 1981.
After her second child was born – her son Jonathan is now 37 and her daughter Abigail is 34 – Michelle left the police force in 1989.
But she returned six years later, this time as a civilian investigator in the Major Crime Unit, working on cases including the disappearance and murder of landscape architect Joanna Yeates in Bristol in 2010.
The grandmother of five retired in 2012.
A croquet player, she also gave a talk at the local Women’s Institute on how to capture one of Britain’s most wanted men.
Michelle says with a laugh: “I’m just an old lady now, aren’t I? I am invisible.”
But he is more foolish than anyone who underestimates his courage.
- Decoy by Robert Murphy is published by Harper NonFiction, priced £9.99.
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This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
