Melbourne Thompson, 41, of Eltham, has been convicted of rape and robbery at the Old Bailey after he followed a woman heading to work, punched her in the head, and dragged her into an alley.
The attacker struck the woman in the head, claimed he was armed with a gun, and hauled her down an alley before raping her. Thompson stalked the victim-survivor as she made her way to work at about 7am on Sunday, April 12, to carry out the “unimaginably distressing” sexual assault.
Attack on Minard Road
When the victim attempted to cry out for help, he silenced her by covering her mouth and pulled her into a side alleyway off Minard Road, Catford, and orally raped her. He then stole her phone from her jacket pocket.
It was a bus driver who called 999 after the victim boarded his bus on Brownhill Road and told him she had been robbed.
Arrest and conviction
The stolen phone was discovered four minutes from Thompson’s home. He was a registered sex offender, convicted in 2005 of indecent assault on a woman two years earlier, and the attack in Catford matched his previous offending pattern.
Thompson was arrested on Tuesday, April 28, and charged to appear at Bromley Magistrates’ Court the next day, when he was remanded in custody, reports MyLondon. Following this, officers have been working to identify whether Thompson could be responsible for other sexual assaults.
Sentencing date
While no offences have been identified so far, officers believe there may be more victim-survivors who are yet to come forward. Thompson was convicted of rape and robbery at the Old Bailey on Friday, October 9.
He was remanded in custody and will be sentenced at the same court on Friday, December 4.
