DNAprint Genomics (DNAG)

[mingwan0]

Some more information on the London rapist:

http://icsouthlondon.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0225croydon/tm_objectid=14260079&method=full&s...

Impersonator hampers law in search for serial rapist

By Ross Lidbetter

A BOGUS caller has been trying to hamper police in their bid to catch a serial sex attacker who preys on the elderly.

It is believed the phone pest is attempting to send officers out on wild goose chases in a bid to capture the suspect, who has raped four victims and indecently assaulted 27 others in areas including Croydon over the past 12 years.

The malicious caller claims to be Det Supt Simon Morgan, who is leading the hunt, code-named Operation Minstead.

The impersonator has been ringing several forces in London and the south east, including the Met.

His telephone calls have been made since the latest developments in the investigation were publicised in the press last month.

The hoax calls are now being investigated by the Met's Directorate of Professional Standards specialist investigation unit.

Meanwhile, dozens of people rang the Operation Minstead team after the latest publicity on the Met's largest ever manhunt for a rapist, when police revealed they were closer to catching the rapist thanks to a groundbreaking DNA technique.

Det Supt Morgan said: "We received about 60 good phone calls afterwards, with quite a lot of names mentioned."

The ancestral testing of DNA has enabled detectives to trace bloodlines to discover his family background and then narrow the number of suspects.

They have established the attacker is of Caribbean origin.

A number of police and civilian staff from West Indian backgrounds are still being asked to provide samples to help build up a DNA map to predict which countries are the most likely birthplaces for both parents of the attacker.

A £20,000 reward has been offered for information leading to his arrest.

Police believe the attacker is now aged about 35.

He is black, possibly light-skinned and he may have links to the offending areas and possibly Brighton, a place he mentioned during one attack.

He is known as a "gerontophile" - someone who is obsessed with the elderly - and hallmarks of his attacks include cutting telephone lines and electricity.

All his victims are aged between 68 and 93 and more offences have occurred in Shirley than anywhere else.

The first offence identified by DNA profiling was carried out in October 1992 in the Shirley area.

The suspect was also linked to eight burglaries last summer, five of which were in the borough.