Paedophile BBC Radio 1 DJ dies aged 79 one month after disappearance following fall into river
Former BBC Radio 1 DJ Michael Willis, who later changed his name to David Evans, has been found dead in the River Dart at the age of 79.
The convicted paedophile was discovered near Dartmouth Castle on January 20, following his disappearance in December.
Willis, who was jailed in 2020 for possessing indecent images of children, was last seen taking a water taxi to his yacht moored in Dartmouth, Devon.
His body was found half a mile downstream after extensive searches by coastguards and the RNLI.
A source told The Sun: “The next morning his boat was unlocked and his phone was inside.”
“His torch was found still lit on the pontoon next to the boat,” the source added.
“Something happened and he must have gone into the water.”
Willis had been living on a small cabin cruiser yacht called High Cirrus in Dartmouth at the time of his disappearance.
Initial searches of the River Dart by coastguards and the RNLI failed to locate Willis when he first went missing in December.
In 2020, Willis was sentenced to 18 months in prison after police discovered nearly 500 indecent images of children during a raid on his yacht Appalachian Spring in Plymouth.
He had previously received a nine-month suspended sentence at Leicester Crown Court in 2015 after admitting nine counts of downloading indecent images and movies of children between 2006 and 2013.
When first caught, he claimed he had been “intrigued by the Jimmy Savile affair” and wanted to pass his findings to a sociologist.
At his 2020 trial, he denied possessing 238 Category A and 226 Category B images but was found guilty by unanimous verdict.
At the opening of his inquest in Exeter, area coroner Alison Longhorn said: “The circumstances are David resided on the boat which was moored on the River Dart.”
“He was reported missing to the police as he had not been seen for several days,” she added. “A body was located further down the river several weeks later.”
The coroner confirmed there were no suspicious circumstances, with the medical cause of death listed as unascertained.
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Willis worked under the stage name Steve Merike during his time at BBC Radio 1 in the 1970s.
He had previously worked at pirate station Radio Caroline and later at Radio Trent in the 1980s, where he was a colleague of Dale Winton.
His media career included presenting TV show Pop Quest, where he interviewed stars including T-Rex’s Marc Bolan.
Willis also spent 15 years lecturing at New College Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University, and served as a governor at several Midlands schools. He had also managed radio stations in Australia during his broadcasting career.