Rape victim appeals for help to trace attacker on 20th anniversary of assault

The victim of a terrifying sex attack has appealed for help to trace her assailant after 20 years.

Detectives in the unsolved case are also again calling on anyone who may have information to come forward.

The victim, then in her teens, reported she was dragged into the bushes near the junction of the A1231 and Parkway in Washington by an unknown man on July 22, 2003.

She was walking along a footpath in between Village Lane and Boston Avenue when she was attacked at around 8.30pm, threatened with a knife and told: "Do as I say or I will kill you."

Following the sustained attack, the suspect is then reported to have left the scene in a mahogany-coloured car.

Disorientated, the victim made her way home and her family contacted Northumbria Police.

A large-scale police operation was launched to identify the attacker with detectives conducting more than 500 house-to-house inquiries, taking more than 350 statements and circulating an artist’s impression of the suspect.

Direct appeal

There have also been a number of public appeals for information, but no-one has yet been brought to justice.

The victim has made a direct plea to the public: "I continue to live everyday knowing the man who brutally attacked me and has created so much trauma, is still out there free," she said.

"I wake every day and pray that an offender will be caught, so that I can feel that someone has been made accountable for the horrendous impact this has had on my life. 

"Please help me to find this man, who has not yet paid for his actions 20 years on. I need this case kept alive, so he knows this is not forgotten.

"Someone out there must know something and if you do, please come forward to help me to find justice.

"Everywhere I go and everything I do, I am looking over my shoulder and will continue to, until the day he is found."

'Immense and continuous courage' of victim

Detective Superintendent Alan Cairns, of Northumbria Police’s Safeguarding Department, is encouraging anyone who may have information to come forward: "I want to recognise the immense and continuous courage the victim has shown throughout this time and we want to be able to bring her the justice she deserves.

"Twenty-years on from the attack, we are again appealing to the public to come forward if you have any information at all in relation to this case.

"While we recognise a number of years have now passed, someone could still hold the key in helping bring justice.

"No matter how small or insignificant you feel what you know may be, we would urge you to come forward – it’s never too late to do the right thing."

Anyone with information is asked to ring 101 or visit the ‘Tell us Something’ section of the Northumbria Police website, quoting log NP-20230721-0267.