DNA tests in sex attacker hunt

Officers believe the attacker could be a student in Glasgow

Hundreds of students have been DNA tested in the search for a double sex attacker, police have revealed.

Almost 800 students have been tested as police try to narrow the search for a man who sexually assaulted an 11-year old-girl and attacked an 18-year-old woman in Edinburgh last year.

Officers believe a Glasgow University student living in Edinburgh may be responsible for attacks on November 4, which have been linked by DNA samples.

Police have also linked the attacks to a "peeping tom" incident in Glasgow, where a young girl was spied on through her bedroom window by a man.

The girl was forced to the back of the library

Strathclyde police found matching DNA samples at the scene of the incident in Kelvingrove Street, Glasgow, on November 14.

Lothian and Borders police said it was concentrating its voluntary DNA testing programme in the Newington area of Edinburgh, which is heavily populated by students.

Detective Inspector Gavin Barry, who is leading the inquiry, said: "One of the factors our enquiries quickly established was that the area where the first two attacks took place in Edinburgh and where the later Glasgow incident happened are both heavily populated by students.

"For this reason police contacted the university to establish how many students had links to the Newington area of Edinburgh.

Crimewatch reconstructed one of the attacks

"We began to trace them with the assistance of the university to ask male students to provide us with a DNA sample.

"The fact that we have a DNA profile of our attacker means that we can quickly and accurately rule out anyone not involved in these incidents."

The two Edinburgh attacks happened within 50 minutes of each other, with the 18-year-old woman managing to escape from the man as he attacked her behind the Newington Library.

Police believe he then went to the Cameron Toll shopping centre where he submitted the 11-year-old to a serious sexual assault.

Heavy growth

The Edinburgh attacks were featured on the BBC's Crimewatch programme and resulted in more than 100 calls, including one from a sobbing woman who said she thought she had been attacked by the man.

The man was described as white, in his late 20s to early 30s, 5ft 10in to 6ft tall, with stubble or heavy growth.

He was wearing a dark casual jacket, black or navy coloured trousers or jogging bottoms, a black woolly hat and was carrying a dark rucksack.

Witnesses are asked to contact the incident room at St Leonard's Police Station in Edinburgh on 0131 662 5757.