Attack #1

[sammyt]

The first BR attack takes place in Coronation Avenue in May 1991.

A woman is attacked at 2am, when she returns home unexpectedly early from her night shift work.  She is feeling unwell so leaves work early.

She has just parked her car, when the BR attacks her.  A noise disturbs him and so he bundles her into her own car, and drives her 5km to an isolated spot and rapes her.

He then drives the woman back to Bath in her own car, before escaping on foot.  This becomes his MO in several of his other attacks.


This attack takes place around 2km from most of the other BR attacks.  Is this a sign that the BR lived near to Coronation Avenue and was starting his spree close to home?  Or did he have some connection to the first victim?  David Mulcahy's first attempted rape victim was a pre-targeted victim - a woman who had annoyed him.

Why is the BR hanging around outside the house at 2am?  Police think he is a burglar who launches an opportunistic attack when the victim appears, but I'm not so sure.  Why does this burglar scope out a house with a male (the victim's husband) at home?  Is he waiting for the man to go to sleep before entering the house?  Is he watching a neighbouring house?
He has the knife and balaclava of the rapist, but why doesn't he have the torch, backpack and crowbar of the burglar?

Is he waiting for the victim to return home?  I doubt it because she returns home hours ahead of schedule.  Does he know her change of plan somehow and get home before she does?  That could suggest a work connection.  I'm guessing she was a nurse - I might be wrong but I doubt a middle class Bath woman would be working night shift in a factory.

Why doesn't the victim call her husband to tell him she is coming home early?  Perhaps she thinks he will already be asleep and doesn't want to wake him.  Perhaps she is in a hurry to get home and rest, or in the pre-mobile phone era just doesn't have access to a work or payphone.

If the BR is a burglar who just decides on the spur of the moment to become a rapist, then why do none of the subsequent attacks reflect this?  If anything, the BR crimes show an offender who doesn't feel comfortable in the homes of other people.  He's comfortable with cars, but IMO he's no seasoned burglar.

The BR goes on to attack many times, yet he never decides to try a home invasion attack.  He isn't an offender like JJD or Waller who wants to spend hours with his victims.  JMO but I think the 1991 BR is married or cohabiting and has a fairly tight schedule.  I think he knows the local beauty spots because its where he has taken prostitutes in the past. 

IMO he never begins home invasion crimes, because he's not a burglar.  He doesn't get his buzz from being in other peoples' homes.


Attack #1 isn't reported to the police until at least 1995.  The attack isn't reconstructed on Crimewatch until 2000.  Once the 2000 programme is aired and the local investigation heats up, the Batman seems to stop offending.

Why don't the couple report the attack for at least four years?

People have their own reasons sometimes, which must be respected, and sadly a lot of rapes go unreported.

It seems strange to me though.  The victim is abducted, carjacked and raped in an awful crime.  The offender increases the torture by driving her home afterwards.  
She must have been in real shock, pain and trauma when she is returned home.   Yet she and her husband decide not to report this sickening crime.

[andrew]

Most crimes happen locally to their homes because they know the area and feel safe

[andrew]

Maybe she was so traumatised and shamed she felt she wouldn't be taken seriously and she had shame her family finding out? Rape is extremely personal and she felt humiliated. Her husband probably had to give her courage to go tonthe police. Really wish this person could be identified

[sammyt]

Apr 28, 2021 23:35:12 GMT andrew said:

Most crimes happen locally to their homes because they know the area and feel safe

Yeah, a lot of offenders work within their comfort zone.  

They also often use a 'buffer zone', which means that they attack close to home, but not so close that they'll be at risk of being recognised by neighbours.

[sammyt]

Apr 28, 2021 23:43:55 GMT andrew said:

Maybe she was so traumatised and shamed she felt she wouldn't be taken seriously and she had shame her family finding out? Rape is extremely personal and she felt humiliated. Her husband probably had to give her courage to go tonthe police. Really wish this person could be identified

We all want him identified asap.  It's not the victim's fault in any way that this crime wasn't reported at first - we all deal with extreme trauma in different ways.  She was brave for coming forward to help with the later TV reconstruction.

It's generally more likely that middle class victims will go to the police though.  Serial rapists often target sex workers, drug addicts, or people in low income areas, as they know such victims will be less likely to report attacks than higher income victims.

The Batman threatened his victims ("If you say anything I'll burn your house down") so there may be other victims who were too scared or traumatised to come forward.  The Norcal Rapist is believed to have had additional victims who were threatened into silence.

The Batman must have breathed a sigh of relief when the attack went unreported in the local papers and news.  Perhaps in his warped mind he saw this to mean that he couldn't have done anything too bad if the crime wasn't even reported.  Such offenders are experts at justifying their attacks and shifting the blame.  

He has got away with kidnapping and rape, yet (unless there are other unreported attacks) he doesn't go out and attack again for over five months.

That's a patient offender, and it also makes me think that he had a busy life in 1991.  I don't think he was a JJD type who was out prowling for hours most nights.  Was there a stressor in his personal life that sent him over the edge in May 1991?

He may have worked nights though IMO.  Did he like to peep and prowl for a bit after he finished work?  

[andrew]

The first crime he definitely live within sat a 10 mile radius have there been anyone arrested within 10 miles of the first attack that we know about?

[sammyt]

Apr 29, 2021 20:26:57 GMT andrew said:

The first crime he definitely live within sat a 10 mile radius have there been anyone arrested within 10 miles of the first attack that we know about?

There have been 11 men arrested in connection with the Melanie Hall case.  Apparently some of them were Royal Air Force.


I'm interested in finding out about the man who attacked tragic sex worker Nadine Hillier:


"Nadine suffered another violent attack in 2000 while working as a prostitute.



Her throat was cut and she was part-strangled during an attack in a Bristol car park.



Her attacker was caught and jailed for six years."


Who was this man arrested in 2000 - just as the Batman series ends - for attacking women in car parks?

[sammyt]

Apr 29, 2021 20:26:57 GMT andrew said:

The first crime he definitely live within sat a 10 mile radius have there been anyone arrested within 10 miles of the first attack that we know about?

I think that he might have been travelling even more than 10 miles to commit the Batman attacks.  He was very mobile and didn't mind travelling reasonable distances with victims.  Police suspect that he may have lived in the BA2 region of Bath, which would put him within around 5km of the first attack.

IMO he probably grew up in Bath and was there in the 90s for work reasons.  Possibly had family and inlaws still living in Bath in the 1990s.

I look at the Shelley Morgan murder as the first potential crime, so IMO the perp could have lived closer to that crime scene.  I think he was driving the Bath abduction victims further away from where he lived, rather than going to Bath and then driving the victims back into his home borough to attack them.  JMO though...

[sammyt]

I think it's more likely that the perp at attack #1 is a peeping tom, than a burglar.

If he's a burglar then why doesn't he have an accomplice?

If he's a home invader who becomes a decade long serial rapist, then why doesn't he ever decide to combine the two?

The Batman seems to have enjoyed hanging around isolated garages at the back of houses. Perhaps he realised early on that these were good spots to peep on women and couples.

I doubt the Batman was anywhere near as prolific a peeper as JJD though. We don't have reports of suspicious prowlers in the Batman case.

I think it's possible that the Batman liked to sometimes peep and prowl on his way back from late night work. He didn't spend hours peeping though and chose very quiet spots where he wouldn't be seen.

I don't think he was out all night like JJD, but I'm sure the Batman was always on the look out for victims and opportunities.

I reckon that at any one time he was stalking a few women in Bath, and learning their habits and routines. Victim 1 seems to be taken opportunistically, but by the end of the Batman series he seems to know exactly when victims will be returning home.

Add in his attacks, failed attacks, and failed missions hunting for victims, and he was quite busy - even over a ten year period.

Perhaps during the breaks in activity he was unable to go out at night, and had to 'make do' with visiting prostitutes and daytime stalking.

Eventually he begins attacking victims after work, rather than in the early hours.

He finds it harder to abduct victims in the early evenings, but despite this he doesn't revert back to his 2am attacks.

I think he was getting older by the mid 90s and couldn't handle as many late nights. IMO quite possibly had young children and a wife who by this stage didn't want him out at night.

If the Batman stops offending at around the same age JJD seems to have stopped, then that would put him in his early 30s at attack #1. Perhaps he quits while he's ahead once he hits his 40s around 2000... particularly when the case heats up again with the leaflet drops, DNA testing and new Crimewatch reconstructions. I really don't think he was a young man, offending from age 20-30, who then just stopped.

[andrew]

If he lived close to a first attack and they suspected he lived in ba2 area could every man be traced from records even by us hear? Rules out blacks, asians or foreign folks? Shouldnt be too hard nor time consuming

[andrew]

If he lived close to a first attack and they suspected he lived in ba2 area could every man be traced from records even by us hear? Rules out blacks, asians or foreign folks? Shouldnt be too hard nor time consuming

[sammyt]

May 1, 2021 0:40:44 GMT andrew said:

If he lived close to a first attack and they suspected he lived in ba2 area could every man be traced from records even by us hear? Rules out blacks, asians or foreign folks? Shouldnt be too hard nor time consuming

It is a great idea, but I don't think we have the numbers or the interest yet...  It can also be hard to get certain records due to data protection.

JMO but I don't think the offender lived in BA2, or near to where he struck in Bath.  I think he was a commuting rapist and avoided the heat of the local investigation.

If we traced every white male who lived within 15km of attack #1 then we would be left with a massive amount of suspects.

I would look for males born between 1955-1970, who attended primary school in Bath between 1960-1982, and/or secondary school between 1966-1986, and held a driver's licence from 1972 onwards.  Then I'd look for those who held minicab and haulage licences from 1984 onwards, and door supervisor licences from 2001 onwards.

I'm happy to give it a try, but I think it would be tougher and more time consuming than you think!!

[sammyt]

All JMO but I think that prior to this attack, the Batman is working in Bath.

After he finishes his work for the night, he heads west across Bath towards his home.

He stops at an isolated spot where he knows he can spy on women and couples in their homes. He has been prowling and peeping for a while, and has found several of these spots across.

The Batman is peeping when the victim turns up unexpectedly. He starts to sexually assault her in the street, but is disturbed by a noise.

He decides to take her to a place where he knows they won't be disturbed. He knows several such spots around Bath and Bristol, but decides on one which is in the opposite direction to where he lives, and heads east back across bath, and than south east out of the city.

Without the risk of being disturbed, the Batman is able to commit his first rape. He drives the victim back to Bath and then escapes to his own car, and heads west or south west to his home.

He doesn't use a condom in attack #1 so the police are later able to realise that the crime was opportunistic. Luckily for the Batman, the crime isn't reported for over 4 years, so his DNA isn't gathered and put on the national database.

He worries that he will be caught, but starts to relax when after a few weeks he still hasn't heard any news stories about a woman being attacked.

He decides to use condoms in his future attacks, but also to continue using his MO of driving the victims back in their own cars.

Perhaps the Batman also worries that this attack may have been a bit close to home. He decides that in the future he will target victims in Bath, a couple of miles further afield from where he actually lives, but still a 'comfort zone' in terms of being an area he knows well from work and/or growing up there.

He also realises that if he abducts victims from Bath, the investigation will shift towards the large number of men who live in the city.  He will remain unsuspected because he lives well outside the city.  

[sammyt]

The first attack takes place in the middle of the 1991 'Bath Festival'.

The festival involves many gigs and live music events and draws a lot of visitors to Bath. Some big name bands and artists have been involved in the past.

If he wasn't a local, then it's possible that the Batman was in Bath for the festival. Either for work reasons or just as a visitor.

If he was a bouncer, then perhaps he was working security at a gig or music venue earlier that night. Even though it was a Tuesday night, there would probably have been night time events taking place in Bath due to the festival.

[sammyt]

Actually I was mistaken, and it seems that the Bath Festival didn't start until May 24th that year, so he probably wasn't an out of town visitor who was in Bath for the week.