Sex attacker struck twice
Thursday, 10 July 2008
A man who attacked a 15-year-old girl in Coleraine on Sunday morning tried to assault a second teenager shortly afterwards, according to police.
The first incident happened sometime between 2.30 am and 3.30 am on Sunday July 6, when a man approached a girl and accompanied her as she walked from the Ballysally estate through an area known locally as the Cornfield, the Millburn estate, a lane way at the rear of houses on the Bushmills Road, to The Crescent area where the attack occurred.
It is believed that the girl managed to fight off her attacker.
Following this incident at The Crescent, it is understood that the man briefly approached a second teenager around 4.00 am, as she was walking through the Ballysally estate also towards the Cornfield area. He pushed her into bushes some 100 yards from her home, but she too managed to fight him off.
Chairman of Coleraine District Policing Partnership, John Dallat has described the attacks as "reprehensible to the extreme" and the "most serious" local PSNI teams have had to deal with.
He said: "The low-life individual involved in this cowardly and disgusting attack is highly dangerous and needs to be apprehended without delay. No society should have to tolerate individuals who prey on the innocent and the sooner this person is identified and taken off the streets, the better.
“In my conversation with the Chief Inspector, I am assured that there is a specialist unit of the PSNI in the area taking charge of the investigation in this most serious sexual attack which, thankfully was courageously fought off but not without a great deal of trauma for the victim.
“Anyone who can help in any way should contact the PSNI at Lodge Road or speak to their local community police officer for their area."
Inspector Wisener said police believed the attacker was a local man who had been loitering in the area.
“We see this as a particularly dangerous person," he said.
“The fact that he has tried twice is something that we are concerned about, and we would like to catch him as soon as possible."
He appealed to anyone with information to contact police.
