Woman stabs attempted rapist

12:36pm Friday 8th August 2008

Detectives are searching for a man who was stabbed in the face after attempting to rape a woman on a Clapham estate.

The man attacked the woman at her flat in Welford Court on the Westbury Estate at 11.50 last night.

“The suspect had an injury to his face or neck as a result of the victim defending herself, and almost certainly would have been bleeding heavily.

Detective Inspector Keith Richardson

He initially knocked on the victim’s door asking for a woman called Rachel.

The victim told the man there was nobody at the flat called Rachel and closed the door.

But he knocked again – and concerned for her safety the woman armed herself with a small knife before answering the door a second time.

The man then pushed his way into the flat forcing the victim onto the sofa before trying to kiss her.

She began to scream and then stabbed at the man’s face and throat with the knife.

The man then fled the flat.

The attacker is described as a white man in his 20s with shaved short black hair and a round face.

He is of large build and was wearing a dark shirt and possibly jeans. Detective Inspector Keith Richardson of Lambeth’s Sapphire Unit said: “The suspect had an injury to his face or neck as a result of the victim defending herself, and almost certainly would have been bleeding heavily.

"I would ask anyone who saw this man making off from the Westbury Estate, or any medical practitioner who might have been asked to treat a person fitting his description with recent stab wounds to the face, to contact us."

Anyone with information should contact Lambeth Sapphire Unit on 020 8721 3553 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.