Rape hospital cameras not working

Crucial evidence in the hunt for a man who raped a grandmother on a mental health ward could have been lost because CCTV cameras were not working, it is revealed today.

Hospital chiefs have admitted there was confusion over who was responsible for changing the video tapes.

Politicians and health groups have been calling for hospital security to be stepped up after an increase in the number of sex attacks on patients. Scotland Yard fears the latest attack could be the work of a "copycat rapist" following a similar assault at King's College Hospital in south London two weeks ago.

It also emerged today that the man who attacked the grandmother in a private room at the West London Mental Health Trust in Ealing was a regular visitor to the ward. Staff have reported seeing him a number of times and he was also seen talkingto a patient 30 minutes before the attack on the 60-year-old woman.

Detectives also believe the man may have struck before and they have been trawling through the visitors' book kept at the unit in the hope that it may hold the key to identifying him.

Last month, another investigation was hampered after security cameras were not working when a two-year-old baby was snatched at the Wordsley Hospital in Stourbridge in the West Midlands.