Sex attacker: photo fit

Gardaí in Athlone have intensified the hunt for a sex attacker in the area and have consulted international criminal experts and behavioural analysts to work alongside a psychological profiler.

Voluntary DNA samples from men interviewed and photographed to eliminate them from garda enquiries is also continuing, said superintendent Aidan Glacken, who is heading the investigation in Athlone.

In the past 14 months, there have been five attacks on women walking alone in Athlone at night and in the early hours of the morning, with the two most recent of these taking place in the past fortnight.

The incidents, believed to be sexual in nature, have been described by gardaí as serious physical assaults. Glacken said that there were certain similarities between each incident, the first four of which took place in the Bonnavalley Bridge area and the last occurring in the early hours of 20 September in Hallsbridge.

"At the moment, we are treating them as five separate incidents and also looking at them collectively," Glacken said.

"There are a number of consistencies in the descriptions by the injured parties, a man of athletic build and wearing sweet-smelling aftershave. A couple of thousand people have been interviewed at this stage. We have behavioural personnel and psychological profiling going on at the moment. We are also now consulting experts from the international community to assist," he said.