A retired college lecturer who is believed to have drowned in the River Dart shortly before Christmas was a convicted paedophile and former Radio 1 DJ, it has emerged.

David Evans, 79, went missing after he was last spotted boarding the Dartmouth water taxi on December 16.

His body was recovered from the River Dart on January 17, and the coroner later confirmed that there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding his death.

But in a shocking new twist, Evans, who lived on a yacht moored in Dartmouth, had reportedly changed his name after serving an 18-month prison sentence for possessing 500 indecent images of children.

It has emerged that Evans was in fact Michael Willis, a former BBC radio presenter who was jailed in 2020 after police raided his yacht ‘Appalachian Spring’ in 2017 and found the incriminating evidence on his computer.

However, his criminal record dates further back as Willis was handed a suspended sentence at Leicester Crown Court in 2015, also for possessing sexual images of children, including many where they are being sexually abused by adults.

According to a report in the Daily Mail, he pleaded guilty to nine counts of downloading indecent images and movies of children between 2006 and 2013.

Prior to that, it has emerged that Willis, as he was then known, also dabbled in politics and stood as a Liberal Democrat candidate in Loughborough at the 2010 General Election, where he came third.

To add to the confusion, Willis went under the stage name Steve Merike when he was a BBC DJ in the 1970s, having also worked for the famous pirate station Radio Caroline.

He also hosted the TV show Pop Quest in 1975 and later went on to work at Radio Trent in the 1980s.

Press reports have also loosely linked Evans to another notorious serial sex offender, Jimmy Savile, as the two worked together at the BBC during the 1970s.

In addition, he was also a lecturer at Nottingham Trent University and reportedly a governor at a number of schools.