Gardai have issued a photofit picture of the man who raped a 16-year-old schoolgirl in Cork on Christmas Eve as she walked home alone from a disco.
The photofit was compiled from descriptions of the rapist given by the girl and several people who saw him on Friar's Walk minutes before the rape.
The man is described as 18 to 20 years old and 5 67["] tall, of slight build with fair to brown hair cut tight with a fringe. He spoke with a Cork accent, rode a white or light-coloured motor scooter and was wearing a white helmet with a multicoloured pattern and a tan suede jacket.
The rape happened at around 2.45 a.m. on Mount Pleasant Avenue, off Friar's Walk, just minutes after the girl had left a friend's house following a night at a citycentre disco. The man approached her, forcing her down Mount Pleasant Avenue where he raped her. The girl suffered cuts and bruises to her arm during the 15-minute ordeal before escaping and raising the alarm.
Anyone who recognises the man from the photofit is asked to contact gardai in confidence at Anglesea Street station in Cork: tel (021) 522000.
Meanwhile, Cork gardai are also investigating a New Year's Eve attack at Church Street in Douglas in which a 20-year-old man had part of his left ear bitten off. The attack happened at about 10.30 p.m. The man underwent plastic surgery in Cork University Hospital last night.
Gardai describe the attacker as in his late teens or early 20s, 6 tall, thin and with tightly cut black hair. A girl with long black hair was with him.