Gardai have hired a psychological profiler to help in their hunt for a serial sex attacker who is believed to be responsible for five violent assaults on young women in a Midlands town.

A fifth woman was attacked in Athlone, Co Westmeath, at the weekend as she walked home from a 24-hour shop, but she managed to escape her assailant.

In all five cases, the man has grabbed his unsuspecting victims from behind as they walked alone in the town, and beaten them.

He also attempted to rape some of the women.

The most recent case occurred in the early hours of Saturday morning when a 28-year-old mother of four was attacked in the Hallsbridge area of the town.

The victim noticed a man standing in a car park just after 5am as she walked to the shop. As her way home, he followed her, grabbed her from behind, pushed her over a wall and tried to rape her.

Following a struggle, the young mother managed to run away from her attacker.

That assault was the second incident in the past week and follows three unsolved attacks in the Bonavalley Bridge area of Athlone between August and October 2007.

It happened about 3km from the scene of the previous assaults, but is near the same stretch of railway line.

A 19-year-old Athlone Institute of Technology (AIT) student was attacked by a man near Bonavalley Bridge, a short distance from the college, in the early hours of last Tuesday morning.

Eimear Ni Bhraonain, Independent

Full story at-http://www.independent.ie/national-news/psychological-profiler-joins-hunt-for-serial-sex-attacker-1479686.html

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