**PUBLIC APPEAL PLEASE SHARE**

We are appealing for anyone who may have witnessed these offences or think they may have been approached by this man to come forward and report this to the police.

A 12-year-old girl was raped by a man claiming to be a police officer in Edmonton yesterday evening.
The school girl was walking along Sandhurst Road, in Edmonton, at 5.30pm when a man who was riding a bike, approached her.

He told her that he was a police officer and that he had to search her because she fitted the description of a shoplifter who had just robbed a shop.
He then raped her and threatened her with a knife.

Police have said they are linking the rape with a similar incident just an hour earlier in Shirley Grove, a ten minute walk from Sandhurst Road.

A man on a bike, again claiming to be a police officer, approached a 12-year-old girl as she was walking in Shirley Grove.

He said she fitted the description of someone he needed to arrest and she had to come with him.

When she refused he grabbed her by the wrists.

She managed to free herself and ran off.
Today a 32-year-old man was arrested in connection with the attacks.

He remains in custody at a north London police station.
Detective Inspector Tracey Cormack, from the Met’s Sexual Offences Exploitation and Child Abuse Command, said: “We are appealing for anyone who may have witnessed these offences or think they may have been approached by this man to come forward and report this to the police.”

Anyone with information should call the incident room number on 020 8217 7428 or via 101.