Muggers blamed for surge in gang rapes

A hard core of violent muggers is behind a surge in gang rapes in London, police believe.

New figures reveal there has been one group sex attack for every day of the last year. Two thirds of the suspects had convictions for theft and robbery and half had been involved in street crime in the last 12 months.

The Scotland Yard study was carried out amid mounting concern over the number of gang rapes of young women in the past few years.

Most of the attacks take place in inner-city boroughs in the capital which have large ethnic minority populations.

The study found a disproportionately high number of black and Asian men were involved in the attacks. Around 49 per cent of suspects were described as Afro-Caribbean and 13 per cent as Indian or Pakistani in appearance.

White women accounted for 59 per cent of the victims while 28 per cent were African/Caribbean.

However, because many of the attackers are also white, police believe the assaults reflect patterns of youth crime and the growth of a street culture of gangs of lawless youths rather than simply being a race issue.

Most of the attackers were aged between 15 and 21 and the assaults mainly took place in the street late at night or in the small hours. More than half of the attacks involved three or more suspects.