POLICE are appealing for witnesses after a teenage student was indecently assaulted at St Andrews University.
The 18-year-old woman was walking alone on a lane between the University Sports Hall and the David Russell Apartments, on the outskirts of the town, at around 1am yesterday when she was attacked.
Police say the woman became aware of a man walking along the path behind her before he grabbed her and indecently assaulted her. The attack lasted a very short time before the assailant fled from the scene, but police say the victim was "extremely shaken" by the ordeal. She did not suffer any injuries.
Her attacker is described as as 5ft 8ins to 5ft 10ins wearing a dark Puffa jacket, dark tracksuit bottoms, grey beanie hat and possibly wearing gloves. He may have been of foreign appearance.
The woman had been in the central area of St Andrews with friends prior to the incident.
Chief Inspector Adrian Annandale appealed to anyone who was in the area and saw anyone matching the description of the man, or who may know his identity, to contact the police on 101. All information will be treated with the strictest confidence.
Chief Inspector Annandale added: "This type of incident is rare and it is not known what the man's motive was, however the victim was very shaken by it. I would take this opportunity to remind the public when they are in more remote areas to be aware of their personal safety."
The attack took place in an area roughly a mile west of St Andrews town centre, close to where the famous Old Course Hotel and golf course are located.
The David Russell Apartments are a university-owned residence which accommodates around 330 students in 57 houses.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article