Batman rapist

Status:

Open

Jurisdiction:

Avon And Somerset (CONSTABULARY)

Missing From:

Bath, Somerset

Summary:

The Batman rapist is an unidentified serial sex offender who committed at least seventeen sexual assaults on women in the city of Bath, Somerset, between 1991 and 2000. He is the subject of Britain's longest–running serial rape investigation, codenamed Operation Eagle; he has eluded capture for more than 30 years. The perpetrator was nicknamed after leaving a baseball cap bearing a logo from the Batman film series at the scene of one attack.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Offense:

The first known attack occurred on May 21, 1991, when the rapist attacked a 36-year-old woman who was returning home after working the night shift. As she was parking her car in a lane at the rear of her house in Southdown, Bath, a man grabbed her, put his hand over her mouth and a knife to her throat. He forced her back into her car, and drove her to a rough track just off Combe Hay Lane where he ripped the gusset of her tights and raped her. The attacker targeted lone women who had just returned to their cars, abducting them at knifepoint before forcing them to drive to secluded areas in the south of the city where he then assaulted them. He removed their underwear and ripped their tights during the rapes, but then made them put them back on after the rape is over. In May 2000 attempted to carjack a 26-year-old woman in Bath while her 7-year-old daughter was in the car.

Additional Details:

The rapist had long periods of apparent inactivity, including a three-year gap between October 1991 and November 1994, followed by a further two years of apparent inactivity until June 1996. All but one of his crimes have taken place in Bath, usually in the Bathwick area of the city; the exception being the abduction and rape of a 19-year-old woman in Kingswood, near Bristol, in September 1996. In January 2001, the Forensic Science Service used the Low Copy Number (LCN) DNA profiling technique to isolate the rapist's DNA "fingerprint". They then began the process of taking swabs for comparison from all the men, believed to be around 2,000 individuals, whose names had come up during the course of the investigation. The case was highlighted on the BBC's Crimewatch on 25 January 2000, including an appeal from Avon and Somerset Constabulary for information from the public. As a result of the appeal, six previously unknown victims came forward. Callers also gave the names of four potential suspects, including the son of a British diplomat, and "dozens of calls were received from prostitutes and partners of people with similar sexual habits". One theory considered by police was that the rapist had been in prison or away from the area while serving as a member of the armed forces, based on his inactivity between October 1991 and November 1994 and between February 1997 and January 1999. Detectives later learned that these periods coincided with dates when a diplomat's son, whose name had been given by a caller to Crimewatch, was out of the country living with his father. Although detectives visited the country where the father works to ascertain if similar attacks had occurred there, no further information has been forthcoming from the police. In October 2000, to coincide with the end of British Summer Time, Avon and Somerset Constabulary delivered leaflets to 25,000 homes in Bath—the biggest leaflet drop in the history of British criminal investigation—asking women to complete a checklist about friends, acquaintances, neighbours or relatives who might fit the profile.

Case Last Updated:

May 11, 2026