Is it really unreasonable of me that I read about this and immediately googled locksmiths and auto lockmiths in the Bath area, and it immediately showed me one I looked up on a publicly available government website which showed a man born in a year which would tally with a possible perpetrator, who elsewhere on the internet is shown in a photo with blue eyes ( I don't know if he has a mark below his mouth, worth checking?)? The most recent photo is from fourteen years ago. There is one other person in specifically auto locksmithing in the area but there is no photo available, and they are also of the right age - born in the early 70s. I don't want to make people think innocent people are guilty. With the abrupt end to perpetrating, I always hoped the person had gone to prison for something else, or else been discovered and finished by someone. I find the forced driving back to the journey start particularly odd. Even driving somewhere seemed risky for the perpetrator, and I truly don't understand the lack of DNA from the ridiculous hat. The newspapers disrespect victims by making out the crimes are cartoonish with this nickname. I wish they'd have sensitivity as if a family member had been raped. I find the case horrific and weird. One of the people which came up straight away lives extremely near to the area where the crimes were committed in newspaper reports. This made me wonder if driving there was necessary for a specific reason. Did they associate that area with something? Did they film it and have something already set up? Did they know that area better, or own land there they knew would not be visited? I haven't seen any of these things considered in reports.
I think locksmith is an interesting possibility. It's certainly a job where people have to be mobile and work late at night.
I would expect the perp to have been born before the early 70s, but I might be wrong.
Driving the victims is indeed unusual. Could it be because he has an identifiable work vehicle, which he can't use during attacks, but has to return to afterwards?
I doubt very much if he was filming the attacks, or if he owned the land where any of the abduction attacks took place. Some of the attacks took place in the grounds of the university, a museum etc.
He seemed to know that he was unlikely to be disturbed, which suggests a familiarity with the whole of Bath (including the outskirts) rather than just the city centre.
There was an attempted car jacking in central Bath, earlier that evening. The woman fought back and was badly injured, but managed to force the attacker to flee.
The police don't seem to link Melanie Hall to the Batman attacks though. I've never seen it ruled out as such, but it's not listed as one of the Operation Eagle 'linked attacks'.
I think driving was a way to disorientate the person and to confuse people and its control. Its risky of the highest order anything could have happened. I dont think he was a cop would a cop really take that risk? I think the red light district women of the night know him i feel he defo used sex workers. He would be mid 50s to 70s now. I doubt hes in prison i feel he either died or had a family or went to prison and wasnt connected by luck.
I think locksmith is an interesting possibility. It's certainly a job where people have to be mobile and work late at night.
I would expect the perp to have been born before the early 70s, but I might be wrong.
Driving the victims is indeed unusual. Could it be because he has an identifiable work vehicle, which he can't use during attacks, but has to return to afterwards?
I doubt very much if he was filming the attacks, or if he owned the land where any of the abduction attacks took place. Some of the attacks took place in the grounds of the university, a museum etc.
He seemed to know that he was unlikely to be disturbed, which suggests a familiarity with the whole of Bath (including the outskirts) rather than just the city centre.
He could be a taxi driver or delivery or a post man. The tights fetish should lead to him there must be women out their who knew a guy who had that very particular fetish. Maybe he used that fantasy with escorts but not a partner?
He could be a taxi driver or delivery or a post man. The tights fetish should lead to him there must be women out their who knew a guy who had that very particular fetish. Maybe he used that fantasy with escorts but not a partner?
In the EAR case from California, everyone speculated about whether he was a college student, a construction worker, a mechanic, a police officer, or a burglar.
It turned out that he was all of these things.
In the case of the Batman rapist, I would agree that he may have used sex workers.
On several occasions he also used headbands to blindfold victims. I've read about cases where rapists take items from their partners and then use them in attacks.
He's chucking to himself, while his wife or girlfriend can't think where her tights or headband have disappeared to.
I reckon he would only be 55-65 years old now, so is probably still alive.
He's an inadequate type to say the least, so I suspect (like most serial rapists) he got married and had children, to 'prove' his manliness to the world.
He almost gets caught the one time he attacks outside of Bath.
In 1996, he abducts a woman in Kingswood, agonisingly close to where an undercover police surveillance team are conducting a stakeout. Julie Mackay mentions it in her book.
He almost gets caught the one time he attacks outside of Bath.
In 1996, he abducts a woman in Kingswood, agonisingly close to where an undercover police surveillance team are conducting a stakeout. Julie Mackay mentions it in her book.
Yes, that's the book. IIRC Mackay refers to him as the 'Bath Raper'.
There's no real mention of the DNA/forensic status in the Batman case. It's not really certain if they have DNA from multiple attacks, or just from the cap dropping attempted attack in 1999.
The 2,000 men who were DNA tested in the Batman case, were asked to sign a waiver allowing their DNA to also be tested against the sample from the (at that time) unsolved Melanie Road murder.
''Some have been forced to wear tights and were blindfolded with a hairband.
Scar
The rapist is described as white, slim, in his 30s, between 5ft 8in and 5ft 10in tall, with distinctive blue eyes and a scar below his bottom lip.
He is said to wear black clothes and a baseball cap with a batman logo on it during the attacks.
Police say he has an extremely good knowledge of the area and has committed offences one after the other on the same night.
Often there is a big time gap between the assaults. Detectives believe this could be a clue to the man's identity.
They say relationships he may have been in could have ended, or he could live or work away from the area, returning only sporadically when he strikes again.''
He was said to be comfortable driving all sorts of cars, so I definitely wouldn't rule out a driving job.
Returning the victims back to Bath in their own cars, suggests he needs to get back there himself. But after he leaves his victims, is he exiting on foot to somewhere local, or returning to his own vehicle and driving out of Bath?
The Western Daily Press reports on 18th November 1994 that the Batman Rapist may have stalked as many as ten women before abducting a 27 year old woman on 14th November.
One of the stalking victims, a 21 year old from Bath, managed to escape when she made it to her car.
She described the "night stalker" as white, clean shaven with dark hair, around 5ft 7 tall, and in his 20s or early 30s.
This period in late 1994 is the only time the rapist lets people see his face.
Why in 1994 is he so careless (by his own standards) and so prolific in terms of his stalking? What's acting as a trigger for his carelessness in 1994?
One of the stalking victims was adamant that the man who followed her was Christopher Hampton.
After numerous attacks in late 1994, the rapist seemingly waits until late September 1996 until he strikes again. He also moves location, attacking in Kingswood in Bristol. Interestingly enough, in 1996 Christopher Hampton moves from Bath to near Kingswood.
2001 rbbm
''The force also renewed its appeal for information about three men and a woman who asked if a cap had been handed in at Boots store, Southgate, following the last confirmed Batman attack on January 26 1999.
DI James said: "At 10am on January 27 1999, a man asked if a cap had been handed in at the photographic counter in Boots. At 2pm, two more men made the same request at Boots, followed by a woman in her 50s the day after."
Detectives also believe a near collision involving a large silver or grey saloon and a blue Ford Escort at the Bathwick Street and Sydney Place roundabout on January 26 1999 is linked to an attempted attack.''
The car incident from January makes me think he think he's a commuter offender (at least by the end of the series) who has his own vehicle in Bath, to make good his escape.
Presumably the near collision is him fleeing after the cap dropping attack. There's another attack 15 minutes later about 1.8 miles away. The distance could just about have been covered on foot, but it seems more likely to me that he had a car.
Detectives hunting a serial rapist who has struck at least 11 times over the past nine years yesterday linked the knifepoint attacks for the first time.
www.theguardian.com
''Two of the women attacked will speak about their ordeal tonight on the BBC programme Crimewatch UK, and Detective Superintendent Bill Davies, who is leading the inquiry, will appeal for other victims who have not reported incidents to come forward.''
''As far as the police can tell, the rapist first struck on May 21 1991, when a 36-year-old woman was abducted at knifepoint as she tried to park her car in Coronation Avenue, Bath.''
By John Steele27 October 2000
''A LEAFLET inviting women to consider whether someone they know is a serial rapist has been distributed to 25,000 homes by police hunting a man suspected of 14 attacks over the last decade.
Avon and Somerset police has distributed the leaflets as part of Operation Eagle to catch the man who has attacked 13 women in Bath and another in the Kingswood area of Bristol.''
''The man is thought to know Bath well because he takes his victims along a number of back roads. He tends to strike during dark winter nights and the latest appeal has been timed to coincide with the end of British Summer Time.'' ''To fit the profile, they must be able to tick the boxes suggesting he is:
a white male;
of slim or medium build;
aged between 30 and 50;
knows the Bath area well, and has some connection with Bristol, particularly the Kingswood area, and can drive a car.
The leaflet also suggests that women must be able to tick yes to two of these three descriptions:
he has a tights fetish and he could get his sexual partner to wear tights which he may rip during intercourse;
he sometimes wears a baseball cap;
he has aroused suspicion with absences from home during the evening and early hours of the morning.
The man last struck in May this year, after a 15-month gap. He tried to drag a 26-year-old woman from her car in Bath while her seven-year-old daughter slept in the back.''
The high ranking officer tried to get into the mind of serial sex offender
www.somersetlive.co.uk
''The investigation, codenamed Operation Eagle, has been described as one of the most complicated and protracted investigations the force had ever undertaken and is Britain's longest-running serial rape investigation.
As of 2019, no one has been charged in connection with the crimes.
Avon and Somerset Police continues to investigate a "number of unsolved serious sexual offences" and any "new lines of enquiry or forensic opportunities".
"Because we have the DNA profile and got a large amount of evidence from over the years, the Avon and Somerset Police cold case team are still treating this as a live investigation.''
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
