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Missed chances to catch him over six years
26 Mar 2009Police in Wandsworth established that a serial sex attacker was on the loose in September 2002 after linking 26 assaults on women walking home alone.
Officers from the Project Sapphire team — a squad set up to investigate sex assaults — launched Operation Anaflora to hunt down the attacker. They had a DNA sample of a suspect and extra patrols were put out on the streets with an alert for an athletic, tall black man with short hair and wearing sports clothing. There were a number of chances to arrest the rapist:
December 2002: Reid was stopped and questioned by two officers who were called to reports of a man following a woman home down a side street. Reid said he had been urinating in a bush and while officers remembered him as “panicky” he was not arrested and so a DNA sample was not taken. The woman reached home safely and police submitted an intelligence report.
January 2004: a man dialled 999 to report a woman being assaulted. The caller was drunk and did not give a location but he gave the registration number of Reid's red Volkswagen Golf. Police later established that the attack took place in Soho Square.
February 2004: officers stopped Reid after they saw him tooting his horn at a lone woman. He claimed that she was a neighbour but officers were not happy with his explanation and submitted an intelligence report saying he should be considered a suspect for the Anaflora attacks. The same month Reid was identified as a suspect by the Sapphire team along with 10 others. However, he was not interviewed or arrested.
In 2007 and early 2008: police checked the details of Reid's car nine times. It is not clear if he was also stopped and questioned.
During the trial Judge Barnes criticised police for failing to take clothing from some victims for forensic tests.
Detectives from the homicide and serious crime group took over the investigation on 28 January last year after analysts realised the serial attacker was still offending. A senior detective identified Reid in a matter of hours after reading the file. He ordered a DNA check on the suspect and a match was returned within 48 hours.
Reid was arrested on his return from refereeing a football match.
