Man found dead in Dartmouth was living under a pseudonym, following sexual offences

David Evans, 79, was last seen on Friday, 20 December, and his body was found on Friday, 17 January. It was identified as Evans in early February. 

But it turns out that David Evans was not his original name, and he was previously known as Michael Willis, and also know as the Radio DJ Steve Merike. 

It appears he changed his name to David Evans following an 18-month jail sentence for possession of child abuse images. 

According to The Mirror, Willis was handed a suspended sentence at Leicester Crown Court in 2015. He moved to Plymouth, where he lived on his boat Appalachian Spring at Plymouth Yacht Haven.

Willis denied possession of 238 Category A indecent images of children on his computers – showing them being sexually abused by adults. He also denied having 226 Category B images.

Divorced Willis pleaded guilty to having just 10 pictures in the least severe class, Category C, on a memory stick.

Police raided his yacht back in August 2017.

Willies pleaded guilty at in Leicester in 2015 to nine counts of downloading indecent images and movies of children between 2006 and 2013.

He was in possession of the images while standing as a Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Loughborough at the 2010 General Election, where he polled nearly 10,000 votes but lost to future Tory education secretary Nicky Morgan.

Willis, who went under the stage name Steve Merike when he was a disc jockey, was a BBC Radio One DJ in the 1970s. He was also a DJ on the famous pirate station Radio Caroline.

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