The following is from today's local newspaper.

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[Author]
Apr 15, 2005

A prominent Canadian psychologist believes [my city]'s rash of unsolved sex assaults could be a string of copy-cat crimes committed by fame-seeking perpetrators.

Police continue to hunt for as many as four predators they think are responsible for the attacks, which have been occurring regularly since November.

...[A] psychologist at the University, said while it's difficult to predict how publicity surrounding sex crimes effects people, it's possible that copy-cat criminals are keeping the string of attacks going.

[The psychologist] said he's concerned the [my city] attackers are driven by the resulting headlines their crimes receive.

"It's plausible that there are copy cats out there who have the inclination to commit these crimes and then are convinced to do it once they see or read that it's been done," he said in an interview yesterday. "It's very possible the publicity of these crimes is having a negative impact."

[Psychologist], who specializes in psychology and the law, said police "are in between a rock and a hard place," because they need to publicize the attacks to generate tips. But on the other hand, it increases the risk of copy-cat crime, and could very well lead to the attacker(s) striking again.

"There are people who continue to commit crime because they like the publicity they're getting," he said.

Meanwhile, investigators will not rule out the possibility a group of friends or gang members are committing the crimes.

In several of the attacks, the descriptions of the culprits given to police by victims have been similar.

In the latest incident, Saturday night in [city], a 21-year-old woman was pulled into an alley on [a street]. by a stranger and raped, just footsteps from a police station that had already closed.

The attacker is described as a clean-shaven man with a tanned complexion in his early 20s, about 5-foot-6 to 5-foot-7 with a medium build. He wore a black toque and a navy-blue hooded windbreaker. He spoke with a Spanish accent.

Police believe another predator is responsible for as many as eight groping incidents on women and children between November and January near [where I work].

Some victims were punched, or thrown to the ground, before being fondled.

Meanwhile, re-enactments of the latest sex attacks in [city] are being aired on TV...

The re-enactment deals with the groping of a 10-year-old girl, who was molested on March 15 at about 3 p.m. in a walkway of her townhouse...

The attack occurred moments after she got off a bus.

The [other] re-enactment, being treated as a separate incident, involves the armed rape of a 16-year-old girl on Feb. 11 at 7:30 p.m. Police said the male suspect, who was armed with a silver handgun, threatened to kill the teen before sexually assaulting her behind a tree.

Police have linked this attacker through DNA to the rape of a 20-year-old woman on July 12, 2004, [at my street - where I live], as well as three other sexual incidents.
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Kinda scary, and yet, unreal....