Moor assault linked to rape case

Police have a DNA profile of the attacker from the rape in 1997

A man who attacked a woman on Ilkley Moor is the same one who raped a girl in Leeds nine years ago, police say.

Forensic evidence from the knifepoint attack on the 52-year-old woman on 26 June matches a DNA profile of the 16-year-old's rapist from 9 July 1997.

The teenager was collecting frogspawn with her 11-year-old brother in Halton when they were grabbed at knifepoint.

Det Supt Paul Kennedy said: "We are definitely looking at the same man and quite clearly he is dangerous."

The 16-year-old's brother was forced to lie face down in bushes while her attacker held a knife to her throat and raped her.

Mr Kennedy described their ordeal as truly horrendous and said they needed to find a connection between Primrose Valley in the summer of 1997 and the Ilkley Moor attack.

"What is that connection?" he asked. "Did he live in the areas? Did he work nearby? Did he have social connections there?"

The man may have scratches on his face after his most recent attack

The woman was knocked to the floor and repeatedly punched in the face by a man as she walked her dogs near the Panorama Reservoir just after 1600 BST on 26 June.

She tried to defend herself with the knife blade, which broke from the handle in the struggle, but the man continued to punch her and she lost consciousness.

When she came round moments later, he was trying to strangle her and she fell unconscious again. When she awoke, at about 1635 BST, her attacker had fled.

A man was later seen bleeding from his cheek as he walked away. The woman suffered severe facial injuries but police said it was still not clear whether she had been sexually assaulted.

Her attacker is described as white, about 40 years old, 5ft 9in tall, toned and athletic, with short brown hair.

He had "rugged skin", a skin-coloured round mole just above his lip and was scruffy, wearing a dark fleece jacket and jeans.

Mr Kennedy said the man may have been injured, with unexplained scratch marks on his face or knife wounds to the side of his body.