Crimewatch appeal aims to solve Hove rape

The BBC television programme Crimewatch will ask viewers to help catch a rapist who attacked a 17-year-old girl in Hove in February.

The programme tonight will feature a reconstruction of the attack which happened when the girl was walking home along Dyke Road, Brighton, near the Booth Museum.

She was grabbed from behind and dragged across the road into Dyke Road Park and raped.

After the attack she ran to the Tesco Express at the junction of Dyke Road and The Upper Drive and reported the attack to Sussex Police.

Detective Chief Inspector Trevor Bowles, of the Sussex Police Major Crime Branch, said: “We are turning to the national audience to appeal for new leads as to who is responsible for this dreadful crime.

“There have been no further linked attacks in Brighton and that is why I feel it is important to broaden our appeal to enable us to gain the widest possible coverage of this attack, seek further witnesses and bring the offender to justice.”

The reconstruction will be shown along with CCTV that shows a man walking about eight seconds behind the victim and about 500 yards from where the attack took place.

He is described as in his thirties, olive skinned, of stocky build with short dark hair and sideburns.

He was wearing jeans, a dark jacket and trainers and may have been wearing a hat.

The attack happened at about 12.20am on Tuesday 15 February.

On Tuesday 1 March a CCTV image of a man on a number 7 bus was released to the media.

This man was traced and through DNA technology has been eliminated from the investigation.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Sussex Police on 0845 6070999 or the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.