The 92-year-old was convicted of murder today
(Image: PA Wire/PA Images)
A police officer who worked on the investigation into the rape of two elderly women by Ryland Headley in the 1970s has described him as “worse than an animal”.
Trevor Mason was a Special Branch detective in Suffolk drafted in to assist in the hunt for a rapist targeting elderly women in Ipswich in 1977.
During Headley’s trial at Bristol Crown Court for the rape and murder of Louisa Dunne in 1967, jurors were told of similarities with two other attacks a decade later.
READ MORE: Man found guilty of rape and murder in ‘UK’s oldest cold case’
Headley, then aged 45, had broken into the homes of women aged 84 and 79 at night and raped them having threatened them with violence if they did not comply.
Police mounted a massive fingerprinting exercise to try to find the attacker and Headley was arrested after a print found at the second scene matched his.
Court artist sketch of Ryland Headley(Image: PA Archive/PA Images)
Headley, now aged 92, pleaded guilty at Ipswich Crown Court in 1978 to the two rapes and was jailed for seven years.
Speaking to Channel 4 News, Mr Mason said: “It was a massive case for the force, and that’s why me and many others working in the specialist departments were drafted in to assist with a huge fingerprinting exercise that was carried out to eliminate males who lived in the area.
“Uniformed officers were brought in, there were CID officers from other parts of the county, there were specialist departments at police headquarters, Special Branch, drug squad, fraud squad, intelligence; we just about dropped everything and came in to help. It was massive, absolutely massive.”
Mr Mason said that he recently saw for the first time the statements of the two elderly women raped by Headley.
“Is it any wonder that we were determined to find him? That was the animal – worse than an animal – who did this to those women,” he said.
“What those poor women suffered is just horrendous, absolutely horrendous. They were lucky, I suppose, that they weren’t killed, but they weren’t lucky at all, were they?
“They were obviously frail, they didn’t stand a chance. Absolutely terrible.
“That’s the man we were after, and thank goodness we found him.”
The former detective said he recognised the name Ryland Headley when he heard it in connection with the murder of Mrs Dunne.
“Immediately, immediately I heard that name, I thought, I know who that is,” he said.
“It’s a name that sticks with you. It’s an unusual name, and it stuck with me for nearly 50 years.
“It’s absolutely staggering. It obviously wasn’t out of character at all, was it?
“And there may be more, maybe, who knows?
“I was really, really amazed… and all credit to the people in Bristol – the cold case review – to actually detect that offence.
“I think probably the biggest question is, what other ones are there? Whereabouts in the country?
“If it happened in Ipswich, if it happened in Bristol, where else? One would hope that with today’s modern technology and the way that cold cases are investigated, if he has done some, then maybe they’ll find some.”
Mr Mason said he believed Headley had “conned” the justice system when he got his life sentence for rape reduced on appeal to seven years.
“He conned the justice system. But hopefully now he’s got his comeuppance,” he added.
“Very late, too late for those old ladies, but he’s got his comeuppance now.”