A car similar to the one described by the victims.
Police have released enhanced FACE images of the man they believe may be responsible for the crimes.
Police have released enhanced FACE images of the man they believe may be responsible for the crimes.
A DNA breakthrough has linked a man in Victoria to a series of violent sex attacks on teenage girls in the 1980s.
Police believe the man sexually assaulted four girls, kidnapping several at knifepoint in 1985 and 1986.
Sexual crimes squad detectives have re-opened a series of four sexual offences committed in Victoria in the mid-1980s after recent advancements in forensics triggered exposed crucial new evidence in the cases.
Police have ascertained a single offender is responsible for the series of child sex offences after a DNA match established a link in three of the cases. The fourth incident is also believed to have been committed by the same man.
Det-Acting Insp Darren Cooper said police had relaunched the cases in a bid to provide some closure to the victims and pleaded for public information.
“Someone out there must know something about these crimes,” Insp Cooper said.
“Two decades have passed and now is the time for anyone with any information to come forward to help us provide justice to these victims.”
The first offence occurred on December 1 in 1985 as a 14-year-old girl was riding her bike through Victoria Park in Ballarat around 4pm.The girl spotted a man standing kicking the tyres of a green station wagon with a white roof.
As she girl rode past the vehicle, the man standing alongside the car grabbed her and threw her into his car.
The man drove to girl to the vicinity of the local tip, threatened her with a knife and forced the girl to drink beer before sexually assaulting her.
The man proceeded to drive the girl to a second unknown location, but released her near her home a short time later. Detectives believe the same man tried to approach the same girl a few months later in March, 1986 as she was walking home from school. But the girl screamed and ran home.
On January 20, 1986, a 15-year-old girl was walking home from shops in Bell St, Heidelberg when she was approached by a male stranger around 3.45pm.
The man asked the teenager to help him fix the steering of his car - also a green station wagon with a white roof - and instructed her to sit in the driver’s seat while he tightened a bolt under the car.
When the girl got into the car, the man forced her on to the floor and threatened her with a knife before driving to an unspecified location and sexually assaulting her.
The man also released the girl near her home after the attack.
Ten days later, the alarm was raised with authorities when a 13-year-old girl was sexually assaulted in a supermarket carpark in Peel St, Ballarat.
The teenager was lying down in her mother’s car in the car park around 1.15pm when the man got into the car, grabbing the victim by the hair and sexually assaulting her before leaving.
The last case occurred on August 2 the same year, when a 16-year-old girl was riding her bike on Venice St in Mentone en route to a ballet lesson.
As she rode past a man kneeling in front of a car around 2pm, the man told her he was having steering problems and asked her to help.
The girl got into the car to assist the man before he threatened her with a knife, forcing her into the front seat.
The man indecently assaulted and sexually assaulted her at that scene before driving her to a second location where he continued to sexually assault her. She was later dropped off in Mordialloc.
Insp Cooper said in each case the victims had described the car used as a green station wagon with a white roof.
Police have released colourised and enhanced FACE images of the man they believe may be responsible for the crimes.
These images are updated versions of those released at the time of the incidents in 1985 and 1986.
The man is also described as being between 20-30 years of age at the time of the incidents, around 177cm tall with light brown hair, moustache and a fair complexion.
Investigators have also released an image of a car similar to the one used to commit the offences.
Police believe he may have had some connection to the Ballarat area.
- with AAP
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét