Police link attack to serial rapist

All five attacks are being linked

Detectives are treating the rape of a 13-year-old girl in Woking as the fifth attack of a violent serial rapist.

Surrey police are linking the assault in Woking on Friday with three other attacks on women in Kent and Surrey this summer and the rape of a 10-year-old girl in Kent in November.

This man is carrying out these attacks in a very high risk way, often in broad daylight and in busy areas

Detective Superintendent Martin Parker

Items of clothing were taken from some of the victims during the attacks.

Officers from Kent and Surrey police have issued warnings to women in the area to take care in isolated and secluded areas.

A schoolgirl was cycling in the Pyrford Common area on Friday when she was grabbed by a man and pulled into woodland where she was raped.

Surrey police have already received more than 80 pieces of information from people about Friday's attack.

Rapist description

They have also been making house-to-house inquiries in the area this week.

Police released an e-fit of the man in February

Following an attack on the 10-year-old in in Ashford, Kent, in November the rapist is thought to have struck next on 11 July in Redhill, Surrey.

He seized a 30-year-old woman who was 'power-walking' near a common.

The third attack occurred five days later on an 18-year-old woman as she walked through Goldsworth Park, in Woking.

The fourth rape, of a 26-year-old woman, was on 7 August in a wooded area in Epsom.

The rapist is described as white with a tanned complexion, aged between 30 and 50, with short hair, about 5ft 9ins in height and of muscular build.

Warning for women

Detective Superintendent Martin Parker said: "This man is carrying out these attacks in a very high risk way, often in broad daylight and in busy areas.

"He is also likely to have been waiting in the areas for some time before committing the offence, possibly several days beforehand.

"It is important that anyone who has information contacts us and doesn't wait.

"Violent assaults of this nature are very unusual in Surrey, but I would urge women walking or cycling alone in isolated areas to be particularly vigilant."