'All I Need is a Name': Serial Rapist Targeting Women Using Night Buses in London

Police consider all incidents linked due to their similarities - the two women who were raped had been approached as they got off night buses from central London, with the attack asking them “where are you going?”.

Metropolitan police are hunting a serial sex attacker after four women were assaulted and robbed in East London.

Two women have been raped after disembarking night buses, while two others have been robbed since 1st July.

Authorities fear the “dangerous individual” will strike again and warn women walking alone at night to remain vigilant.

The first attack was reported at 2.40am 1st July by a woman who’d been walking home down a residential street in the Plaistow South area of Newham. She was approached from behind by a man who raped her and stole her possessions.

Serial rapist targeting female bar and restaurant workers commuting home in Newham and Waltham Forest, London 🇬🇧

In the space of 11 days there have been:

- 2 violent rapes
- 1 attempted rape
- 1 robberyhttps://t.co/bk4MAvM0Az@IntellFusion pic.twitter.com/DhOeLMh3BF

— Intelligence Fusion - Europe (@IF_Europe) July 16, 2019

​The second was on 6th July at around 3.30am near Leyton Tube station, where a woman was followed and robbed by a man who “made sexual advances towards her”, police say.

The third was reported less than an hour later, at 4.20am, in nearby Amethyst Road - a 31-year-old woman was approached by a man who then raped her and stole her property. 

In the fourth, police were called at 3.30am on 11th July to Central Park Road in East Ham, where a woman reported she’d been followed by a man who threatened her and attempted to rape her. He also stole her property. 

Investigators have released footage of the man they wish to trace, which shows him walking down a road wearing ripped jeans, a camouflage top and dark jacket shortly before the 6th July attack. No arrests have been made as of 17th July, and extra police patrols have been deployed to the areas where the attacks took place.

Detective Superintendent Andrew Packer told the Evening Standard he wished to speak to any woman who has been approached in a similar way, irrespective of whether they’ve fallen victim to sexual assault or robbery.

“He starts with a bit of conversation, asking ‘where are you going?’ The language then turns explicit. I am convinced that there will be a member of the public who takes a good close look at this footage and thinks 'wait a minute, that looks a lot like...'. All I need is a name. If you think you know who this man is, please don't delay - contact my team right away,” he said.