£5,000 reward to help catch brutal rapist
A REWARD of £5,000 is today being offered by detectives hunting a sex fiend who brutally raped a Peterborough woman.
A REWARD of 5,000 is today being offered by detectives hunting a sex fiend who brutally raped a Peterborough woman.The sum on offer is one of the largest to be put up by police who are desperate for more information to help them catch the man who raped and strangled the lone woman before leaving her unconscious body lying on an isolated cycle path.
Officers have also released more CCTV footage of a man they want to quiz in connection with the rape.
The attack happened as the 27-year-old mother of two made her way to work along Gresley Way, in Westwood, at 3.20am on May 19.
Police say she was grabbed from behind, strangled and then thrown to the ground. She then lost consciousness, but medical tests later confirmed she had been raped.
Police have battled in vain for the last six months to trace her attacker - even carrying out DNA swabs on 300 men in the Westwood and Ravensthorpe area
Speaking at a specially-called press conference at Thorpe Wood police station, in Peterborough, yesterday, Detective Inspector Simon Harding, the senior investigating officer, said he hoped the 5,000 reward would spur anyone with information about the identity of the rapist to come forward.
He said: "We believe there may be someone out there who has information which could prove vital in bringing the man responsible to justice.
"We've not had a great deal of information coming to us about who may be responsible. At the moment, we are concentrating our efforts in and around the Peterborough area, but I don't know if he's still in the city.
"The reward will come from police funds. We are taking this action because of the seriousness of the offence.
"I would've preferred to have found the offender in the early steps of the investigation, but I'm hoping now that people will come forward with the vital information we need."
The new CCTV footage shows a man walking along Taverners Road, at the junction with Clarence Road, in the direction of Westfield Road, in the moments leading up to the attack.
DI Harding said: "We appreciate that you can't see the man's face clearly, however, someone may recognise the clothing or the way he walks from the moving images.
"Someone may even be aware of a person who takes this route regularly at that time of the day."
DI Harding said the victim was beginning to show signs of recovery.
"I can't begin to describe what effect it had on her.
"I'm pleased to say she is starting to get better and starting to move on."
The reward offer follows the completion of a DNA search of men in the area in recent months, where a total of 307 men volunteered a sample to police. The samples were then profiled and 107 were sent away for further analysis to see if they matched DNA samples taken from the victim. However, none came back positive.
The attacker is described as white, aged between 19 and 23, about 5ft 9ins tall, and of medium build. He is believed to have been wearing a white baseball cap, a light-coloured zip-up top and light-coloured bottoms.
Anyone with information should call police on 0345 456 4564, or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555111.
Poster campaign launched in rapist hunt
A SERIES of posters encouraging people to come forward with information on the brutal attack have also been released by police.
The posters feature a CCTV image of a man who they wish to speak to in connection with the attack and an appeal in seven different languages. They are: English, Polish, Lithuanian, Latvian, Portuguese, Russian and Czech.
DI Harding said: "We are going to be putting them up in the Westwood and Ravensthorpe areas, and in Peterborough city centre. They will also go in the Lincoln Road area where the CCTV footage was filmed.
"I'm concerned that there is a diverse community in Peterborough and not everyone would watch the news, or listen to it or read the newspaper, but they might see the poster. This is also why they are in different languages.".
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Friday 19 March 2010
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