A paedophile former BBC Radio 1 DJ has died aged 79 after falling into a river.

Michael Willis, who had also worked as a college lecturer, had changed his name to David Evans after being freed from jail following an 18-month sentence. Police said he went missing in December and was last seen taking a water taxi to a pontoon where his yacht was moored in Dartmouth, Devon.

In 2020, Willis was jailed for possessing indecent images of children after police raided his private yacht. He was found with nearly 500 vile pictures on his computer equipment. Willis, who performed under the stage name Steve Merike when he was a disc jockey, was a BBC Radio One DJ in the 1970s. He also worked as a DJ on the famous pirate station Radio Caroline and at Radio Trent in the 1980s, where one of his colleagues was the late television presenter Dale Winton.

Coastguards and the RNLI searched the River Dart but were unable to locate Willis when he went missing. However, on 20 January, a body was found half a mile down the river. It was later identified by the coroner as David Evans, 79, with no mention of his previous identity, according to The Sun.