POLICE searching for a man who attacked a young woman on Strensall Common last week have issued an efit of the suspect.

The woman, who is her twenties, was attacked when she was walking her dog close to the golf course about 15 minutes away from the car park, between 2.30pm and 3.15pm on Sunday, February 26.

Victim Laura Mason bravely told The Press last week what had happened, in an attempt to help catch the attacker.

She said then: “He said ‘hello beautiful’ to me first time I saw him. I thought it was a bit strange, and thought I would go another way so I didn’t have to walk by him.

"As I got a bit further down the track he just appeared from behind a tree, he must’ve raced ahead of me through the woodland.

York Press:

“He put his hand up to my throat and said ‘don’t’, but as he said that Lola came and got hold of the bottom of his trouser leg. She’s the world’s softest dog, I’ve never seen her be vicious or even snarl at anyone, but she had his trouser leg. He turned round and kicked her, but she got up.

"It felt like forever but must only have been seconds. He tightened his grip and as he did I just heard him say ‘ow’, and bent down to his leg and let go of my neck so I just ran.”

Police said a man called out to the woman, who became concerned and turned to walk back the way she had come. The man then jumped out in front of her and grabbed the skin on her neck, painfully twisting it.

In response to this, the woman’s dog bit the man on his leg, he then kicked the dog in her chest, leaving a dirty boot mark and winding her.

The man shouted at the woman and the dog bit him on his leg again. This caused the man to let go of the woman’s skin and tend to his leg, allowing the woman and her dog to escape and get back to her car.

Police say they have already made extensive enquiries and had a good response from the public.

There were a number of other people in the area at the time, and officers want to hear from, even if they did not see the incident itself as they could still have important information.

They now want to hear from anyone who recognises the man in the efit.

He is decsribed as white, fat, with a chubby face, dark, greying facial hair, aged in his fifties and smelt of urine.

He was wearing a dirty, orange, zip-up raincoat with a logo on it and dirty, dark green water-proof trousers with zips at the knees so they could be worn as shorts. He was wearing dark coloured boots and had a Yorkshire accent.

A photo of the dog has also been issued to help jog people's memories.

York Press:

Contact North Yorkshire Police on 101, select option 2 and ask for PC Elle Smith, collar number 1825, or email elle.smith1825@northyorkshire.pnn.police.uk; or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 quoting reference 12170033337.