Breakthrough in rapist hunt

Dertectives have made a breakthrough in the hunt for one of Britain's worst serial sex attackers. Officers are mounting one of the biggest-ever DNA trawls in British criminal history in their efforts to catch the burglar rapist they call the "Night Stalker". The man has struck at least 84 times in London and the Home Counties in the past 12 years - raping and sexually assaulting women aged between 68 and 88.

Now police have narrowed an original list of 21,000 "persons of interest" down to 1,000 names of possible suspects.

They used geographical profiling, DNA testing, information from the public and people's criminal histories to complete the list.

Detectives are pressing ahead with an operation to persuade all those on the shortlist to voluntarily provide DNA samples.

So far, about 120 people have refused. Police are sending letters asking them to think again in the interests of catching the offender.

The tactic has prompted controversy amid concern that the letters to members of London's black community have been intimidatory.

The Night Stalker has carried out attacks in clusters around south London, ranging from Dulwich to Croydon and Orpington in Kent. He has also struck in Surrey.

He is believed to be around 35 and is black, possibly of mixed race. He wears a balaclava and all-in-one black catsuit, which detectives believe may be motorcycle leathers. The ease with which he appears to escape from attacks also points to the possibility that he rides a motorbike.

Detective Chief Inspector Will O'Reilly said: "We are trying to eliminate people using DNA. Generally, when we speak to people they understand the predicament we are in and see that DNA is an easy way of eliminating people from the inquiry."

Scotland Yard has committed huge resources to the hunt for the assailant in an inquiry codenamed Operation Minstead.

Victims have been seriously injured and traumatised by the attacks. So far the man has carried out 84 burglaries, four rapes and 27 indecent assaults.

A 93-year-old woman told of how she was raped twice in an attack in her home in Orpington in 1999, when she was 88.

She said: "I heard a sound in the hallway and the next thing I knew there was a hooded man at the foot of my bed. He put his hands around my neck and said, 'Don't scream and you won't get hurt'."

Many elderly women in areas of the attacks are now so fearful of the stalker that they sleep during the day so they can stay awake at night.

He studies the movements of his victims before expertly breaking into their homes in the night, cutting their telephone and sometimes electricity wires. The man has never left a fingerprint and is aware of forensic procedures, prompting speculation that he is a police officer.

Police are also using a groundbreaking DNA technique known as ancestral testing in an effort to discover the rapist's family background and further narrow the number of suspects.

But Lynne Featherstone, a Metropolitan Police Authority member, criticised the requests for DNA samples.

"The police view seems to be that they are going to get these samples one way or another," she said. "Everyone wants this crime solved but this is a sensitive area and it seems to me that the police are using bullying tactics to get these results.

"I think these letters are intimidatory. This sort of tactic may alienate the black community rather than encourage their co-operation."