Girl so traumatised by sex attack she kept it a secret for weeks

AN 11-YEAR-OLD girl was indecently assaulted as she walked alone in the hills and was left so traumatised by the attack that she waited more than a month before reporting it.

Police are hunting for the man who grabbed her and attacked her in the Ochil Hills in Clackmannanshire at the beginning of the school summer holidays.

The girl, who was walking on the lower edge of the hills, had stopped to take a rest and sat down close to Ochil Road in Menstrie when the man approached her from behind.

Central Scotland Police yesterday launched an appeal for information relating to the incident, which took place on the hill behind the Menstrie Scout hut in the first week of July.

Detectives said the girl's attacker was in his 20s, bare- chested with an athletic build and about 5ft 10in. He had short brown hair, brown eyes and was wearing light-blue jeans and white trainers and he had a Rangers Football Club logo tattooed on his right shoulder.

Det Sgt Steven McMillan, who is leading the investigation, said: "The incident happened some time during the evening of the first week in July.

"The incident left the girl so traumatised it took her some time to come forward and report the incident to police. We are keen to hear from anybody who may recognise the description of the man we want to trace.

"In particular, somebody may recognise the description of the tattoo, which had the letters RFC intertwined and stars."

Police said they were not treating the attack as being linked to any other recent incidents in the area.

On 21 June, a 14-year-old girl was forced into a car at knifepoint and indecently assaulted in Dollar, less than eight miles from Menstrie.

The girl had been walking along High Street and Hillfoots Road in Dollar when she was approached by a man and forced into a green car.

She was then driven to a farm track near Linn Mill and assaulted before being released.

Detectives said at the time that they were keen to find the girl's missing mobile phone, a black Nokia E63, which they said might prove critical to the investigation.

Police described the man involved in that incident as aged mid-30s, about 5ft 8in, with short, receding brown hair and with a badly discoloured complexion.

A week later there were claims that a primary school pupil in nearby Tillicoultry had been approached by a man in the car - although police subsequently said there was no evidence that the incident actually happened.

Last night, Eddie Carrick, Labour councillor for Clackmannanshire West in whose ward the attack took place, said: "I'm very concerned to hear about this attack and to hear that it took a month for the poor girl to feel able to talk to someone about what happened to her.This sort of incident is totally out of character for Menstrie, which is a close-knit community.

"From the police reports we get, the sort of incidents we are used to hearing about are teenagers gathering together for a drink and a smoke, or kids running through gardens.

"I don't recall anything of this nature happening here and can only hope the police make quick progress with their inquiries."