sex attacker hunt launched

The assault, which happened in 1971, was only reported to police earlier this year –- and now officers are appealing for help from people who lived in the town at the time and may have known the man who carried out the attack on a woman.

Det Sgt Sarah Yendley, of Ripley CID, said: “We are interested in talking to a man who went by the name or nickname of ‘Jazz’. He had the appearance of a Hell’s Angel and is believed to be local to the Ripley area.”

Det Sgt Yendley said that since the matter had been reported to police, officers had made “extensive inquiries” to trace the man.

She said: “We have been interested in talking to him for some months and we have made other attempts to try to find the man. We have not been able to, so now we hope that local people from that time might remember him.

“The matter in question has only just been reported to us this year. The matter is an historical sexual assault.”

At the time Jazz would have been around 25 years old. He is described as 6ft 2ins in height with long blond hair. He also had a moustache and a cross ear-ring in his left ear. He had a muscular build. He would now be in his 60s.

Det Sgt Yendley said: “At present we are not able to give massive amounts of detail about the crime. He could be a key witness but at the moment we just want to talk to him.

“People don’t often report things at the time the crime happened for a number of reasons. It is not uncommon to have crimes go unreported for this length.”

Anybody who knows of him should contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111, or 0345 123 3333.