A former MP who helped keep the 'Cambridge rapist' behind bars recalls the 'terror' of 50 years ago.
An air of menace spread over the university city of Cambridge as students were settling in for a new term 50 years ago. Young women were being attacked in bedsits, flats and hostels by a serial rapist who would evade capture for months - until a patrolling police officer had a chance encounter with a cyclist in a red coat.
The known attacks - 10 in all - were escalating and becoming more brutal, with some victims being cut or stabbed by the knife-wielding assailant. She was raped by an intruder - and this set a pattern that would soon lead police to believe a serial rapist was at large. As the attacks continued, students at Dr Bahn's college - Gonville and Caius - set up a widely publicised "bodyguard service".
Det Con Terry Edwards was on Selwyn Road patrolling in the early hours of the morning on 8 June 1975.He saw a woman in a red coat riding a bicycle, but as police had been told to stop everyone he ordered the rider to halt - and a tussle ensued.A nearby resident rushed out to help the officer and together they found a knife and stopped him.
The then Home Office minister Michael Forsyth pledged Cook would only be released if he was no longer considered a danger.Speaking about what it was like in those few months in the 1970s, 84-year-old Mrs Campbell recalls that "everyone was on high alert and very anxious".
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