UK's longest cold case: Ryland Headley 'may have more victims' says cop

A cop who helped tracked down vile sex beast Ryland Headleyin the 1970s has questioned whether he could have more victims.

His remarks come after Headley, 92, was found guilty at Bristol Crown Court of the rape and murder of 75-year-old Louisa Dunne in 1967. 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. Police mounted a massive fingerprinting exercise to try to find the attacker before getting their man. He said: “I think probably the biggest question is, what other ones are there? Whereabouts in the country?

READ MORE: Man, 92, accused of 57-year-old murder in UK's longest ever cold case arrest

"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.”

Speaking to Channel 4 News about the hunt for Headley in 1977 he 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.”

Trevor Mason recently saw court transcripts of the accounts of the elderly victimsraped by Headley in Ipswich for the first time. He said: “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. 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.”

His reaction when he heard Headley had been arrested for the murder of Louisa Dunne: “Immediately, immediately I heard that name, I thought, I know who that is. It’s a name that sticks with you.

"It’s an unusual name, and it stuck with me for nearly 50 years. He conned the justice system. But hopefully now he’s got his comeuppance. Very late, too late for those old ladies, but he’s got his comeuppance now.”

Today, Headley, from Ipswich, was found guilty of the horrific rape and murder at Bristol Crown Court following a two week trial. Louisa, his victim, had been twice widowed and lived alone before she was found dead in her front room in Easton, Bristol, by neighbours on the morning of June 28, 1967.

During the trial the court heard how evil Headley, then aged 34, forced entry into the home of the elderly Mrs Dunne and attacked her. Neighbours told police a woman was heard screaming hours before Mrs Dunne was found dead.

Mrs Dunne, who was using the front room as a bedroom, was found lying on a pile of old clothes, although police found no evidence of any violent struggle in the house. The trial heard a pathologist concluded Mrs Dunne died from asphyxia because of strangulation and pressure on the mouth.

In 2023 items collected from the original investigation, including clothing and swabs, were sent for scientific investigation. Forensic experts concluded the DNA recovered from a blue skirt worn by Mrs Dunne allegedly matched Headley to a ratio that meant it was one billion times more likely to be his DNA than that of someone else. A left hand palm print found on a window that had been forced open at Mrs Dunne’s home also allegedly matched the defendant, the jury was told.

When Headley was arrested at his home in Suffolk in November last year, on suspicion of murdering Mrs Dunne, he told detectives: “I don’t know what you are talking about. Very strange, very strange.”

The trial also heard Headley had been jailed for the rape of two elderly women in 1977, whose homes he had broken into, threatening them with violence if they did not comply. He also asked for a further 10 offences of overnight burglaries previously, to be taken into account when he was sentenced.