Decoys Book hails bravery of women officers who caught Clifton Rapist

It was one of the most serious, dangerous and at times bizarre police operations in Bristol’s history. And now a book about the notorious Clifton Rapist and how police finally managed to catch him, has won not one, but two prizes at the prestigious True Crime Awards in London.

- Tristan CORK

The book, called Decoy, was written by a familiar face to TV viewers in the West Country, ITV West's crime correspondent Robert Murphy.

It tells the remarkable story of how a team of rookie female police officers formed a unit of 12 undercover officers to try to lure a man who had terrorised women in Bristol for almost two years.

Starting in July 1977, seven women had been attacked by a man who became known as ‘The Clifton Rapist’. He would approach lone women walking at night, grabbing them from the street, threatening to kill them and subjecting them to prolonged and life-changing sexual assaults.

The survivors were able to give detectives a description of the attacker - a tall white man with a handlebar moustache and a northern accent. But policing methods in the days before DNA, CCTV and telephone analysis were so primitive that he was able to evade capture. “Some detectives even believed he was a police officer, as he managed to melt away before police operations were launched,” explained Robert.