Police warn serial rapist may be ready to strike again

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WANTED: A police identikit photo of the man wanted in connection to a number of sex attacks in Hamilton.

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Hamilton women planning a night out at central city nightspots this weekend have been warned not to be alone amid fears a serial rapist will strike again.

Police said the sex fiend man had picked up and raped three woman at weekends since April.

"He could attack again at any time," said Hamilton CIB head Detective Senior Sergeant Chris Page.

Police yesterday issued an identikit of the rapist and urged anyone recognising him to come foward before another woman becomes his fourth victim.

The rapist's modus operandi is to offer women walking alone through the CDB at weekends a lift home.

He has then taken them to different public locations and raped them.

"I'm not going to talk about the specifics of how he does or doesn't get possession or control of these women," Mr Page said.

"But what he does do is offer some assistance to them and he obviously seems quite credible."

All the attacks were at night during weekends in April, May and July.

Mr Page said that after studying the time gap between the attacks, police believe they were approaching the danger time again.

"There is a consistency to the dates, about the general gap between them, and our confirmation this week of the same offender brings us to the point where we're starting to approach the same time gap between offences two and three."

He warned women to make arrangements to get home from the central city rather than walk, not to be alone or to accept rides from strangers or accompany strangers to remote places.

The attacker is described as a male Caucasian aged between 18-30 years with fair hair who drives a light- or silver-coloured car.

- NZPA