View
comments
A DNA breakthrough has led to a man being charged, more than 15 years after an alleged attacker dubbed 'the inner west rapist' terrified Sydney women in their own homes.
NSW Police arrested a 51-year-old man at dawn in Panania, in Sydney's south on Monday and charged him with four historic sexual assaults.
Police will allege in court the man is responsible for four separate serious aggravated break-and-enter and sexual assaults in 2003 and 2004 in Croydon, Bondi, Bexley and Marrickville.
Police are working to link him to more after DNA was analysed again, more than 15 years after an extensive investigation 'dwindled away'.
Strike Force McCoy was established in March 2004 to investigate 13 separate sexual assaults between August 2003 and November 2004 across Sydney's inner west.
A man, 51, (pictured in handcuffs) was arrested at a home in Sydney's south-west on Monday after a DNA breakthrough in the 'Inner West Rapist' investigation
Detective Superintendent Jayne Doherty said 'leads went cold and no particular (person of interest) came forward' and since then the man has 'been in our community, living amongst us'.
Investigators used new technology to look at DNA samples collected from crime scenes, and while the man himself was not in the database, NSW police research co-ordinator Jennifer Raymond says he was identified through a close family relative who is.
The breakthrough came courtesy of
