Police patrols will be stepped up this weekend in a town where a woman was subjected to a serious sexual assault as she made her way home after a night-out.
The 27-year-old was attacked after getting off a bus in Lauder Road in Dalkeith, Midlothian, at about 3.45am on Sunday.
A man approached her and forced her into a wooded area of land between Lauder Road and Wester Kippielaw Drive before carrying out the attack.
He is described as white, aged about 20, about 5ft 7ins and of very slim build.
He has short dark hair and was wearing tight fitted jeans and a shiny black hooded top.
It is thought the man may have been at a local nightclub earlier in the evening and may have been thrown out.
Chief inspector Kenny Simpson, of Police Scotland, said: "I want to reassure the local community that we are using all resources available to track down this suspect and ensure he is brought to justice.
"As part of our approach, we will continue to run additional patrols in the area and officers are also planning to speak with people who are going out in the town this weekend.
"Sexual attacks of this nature are thankfully very rare and I would ask people to engage with officers if they remember any unusual behaviour in the early hours of last Sunday in the area of Lauder Road.
"Alternatively, information can be passed to police via the 101 number or through the charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111."
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