Sleepwalker is raped: Woman attacked after wandering out of friend’s home in middle of the night

  • Attack took place on a street in Ruislip, West London
  • Victim, 48, suffers from somnambulism
  • Officers from Metropolitan Police’s Operation Sapphire are investigating the claims

By
Chris Greenwood

09:40 EST, 16 July 2012

|

19:56 EST, 16 July 2012


The woman victim told police she was raped while out sleep-walking in Ruislip, north London (pictured posed by model)

The woman victim told police she was raped while out sleep-walking in Ruislip, north London (pictured posed by model)

A sleepwalker was raped when she wandered out of a friend’s home in her nightclothes after a dinner party.

Detectives are investigating the attack on the 48-year-old woman on a street in Ruislip, West London.

The victim told specialist investigators she was accosted and raped  after she decided to stay overnight following a dinner party with friends.

The woman, believed to be a child carer, suffers from the sleep disorder somnambulism and has sleepwalked at night before.

A source said she went to bed around midnight but appears to have let herself out of the house before being targeted by the attacker.

He told the London Evening Standard: ‘She suffers from somnambulism which means that she sometimes sleepwalks in the middle of the night.

‘She was at a friend’s house and apparently she went out of the house in Ruislip and walked around the streets, unaware of what she was doing.’

Officers from Scotland Yard’s Sapphire unit – set up to improve confidence among victims and catch more rapists – are investigating the offence.

They have taken DNA samples and other forensic evidence from the woman in the hope of matching it with known offenders on their databases.

They are also hunting for CCTV footage from the area around the attack, which took place at about 4am on June 27.

It is also understood that specialist rape counsellors and detectives have interviewed the victim. The Metropolitan Police confirmed that detectives were investigating ‘an allegation of sexual assault’ and that forensic investigations were ongoing.

Police have said they are investigating the rape but are not even sure where exactly the attack happened and said officers from Operation Sapphire were investigating

Police have said they are investigating the rape but are not even sure where exactly the attack happened and said officers from Operation Sapphire were investigating

A spokesman said: ‘We are not prepared to give many details of this incident to protect the vulnerable victim

‘Because of the circumstances in
which it happened, we are not even sure where the sex attack happened –
at this stage we are just saying Ruislip.

‘We are giving very few details of
this case because we are most anxious nothing should be published which
might identify this woman.’

The Sapphire sex crime unit has been rocked by a series of scandals as it battles to win back the support of victims.

One detective has been accused of falsifying documents and another faces claims of misconduct over the standard of his work.

In 2001, a landlord who raped his teenage tenant after she came into his bedroom while sleepwalking was jailed for seven years.

Iranian Muslim Abbas Dadgarnejad,
then aged 38, was branded ‘despicable’ for taking advantage of the
19-year-old Danish girl at his flat in Central London.

The Old Bailey heard the girl had a history of sleepwalking and went to bed with her fiancé but woke up with her landlord.

Here’s what other readers have said. Why not add your thoughts,
or debate this issue live on our message boards.

The comments below have been moderated in advance.

Why do men do this??
You have NO IDEA how this affects a woman!!!

My grandfather was a sleepwalker all his life. He eventually died whilst sleepwalking. He fell from an open window to the pavement below and died from his injuries.

I live in ruislip… That’s scary.

LM, Leeds……..sleepwalkers can do anything in their sleep. They can even unlock doors!

How sad….

I sleep walk. I do random things lime put
Bottles of
Vinegar in the bathroom or collect tools from the cellar and put them in other rooms. I know I have been outside before too but never aware of it at the time. Even falling down the stairs doesn’t wake me up. I was doing it years before someone witnessed me doing it and for years I believed this strange goings on in my house was an intruder or a ghost. But turns out it was me all along

How can she remember anything if she was sleepwalking?

That sounds more like a night terror to me 🙁

I thought ppl who sleep walks don’t remember any thing after she/he wakes up, I got cousins m friends like that n no they never remember a thing! Good 4 this woman that she remembers what happens so would help to catch who did it.

This does happen. I used to sleep walk when I stayed in an unusual place, I went on holiday at 18 and my friend caught me opening the hotel door which was locked and wandering off down the hallway and down the stairs, completly asleep. She followed me calling my name and eventually I turned around, snapped ‘WHAT?’ at her and walked back to the room. I remember none of it! It stopped when I started uni and got used to sleeping in strange unknown places! Hope this lady is ok how terrifying

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