A lone sex offender is suspected of assaulting at least 25 victims, including girls as young as eight on their way to or from school, in London in the past year, police said.
Police have released CCTV of the potential suspect in a string of sexual assaults against women and girls, ranging in age from eight to 34, targeted in public places while they were walking down the street during morning or afternoon rush hour.
Scotland Yard said the assaults could be linked and may have been committed by the same man, described as white, in his 40s and with blue eyes, mainly in Lewisham and Greenwich boroughs but also Southwark, Bromley and Bexley.
Footage has been released showing a man running along a road, to whom police want to speak in connection with their investigation.
DCI Andrew Furphy said there was a strong possibility that the offences are linked. “The description given of the attacker is of a middle-aged white man with blue eyes,” he said.
“It is the same method of offending in each case and none of the offences took place at the weekend.”
Most of the victims were teenage girls, many of whom were targeted while in their school uniforms, he added. Police also fear that there could be more victims who have not reported what happened to them.
“There might be other victims and I would urge them to come forward,” Furphy added. “The more people who come forward, the more information we have and the better chance we have of finding the offender.”
The offences took place between 7am to 9am and 4pm to 6pm. The first incident is believed to have taken place on 16 October last year – a 13-year-old girl was sexually assaulted in Foxfield Road, Orpington, at around 9.15am.
The last reported assault was on 22 November. A 15-year-old girl reported being sexually assaulted in Sandbourne Road, Brockley just after 8.30am. From this incident, officers were able to recover CCTV footage showing a man that they would like to trace as part of their investigation.
