A man has been convicted of rape and robbery over an attack in Catford, and detectives are appealing for potential victim-survivors who may have information to come forward. Melbourne Thompson, 41, was found guilty at the Old Bailey on Friday 9 October. He was remanded in custody and is due to be sentenced at the same court on Friday 4 December.
The police investigation began at 06:55 on Sunday 12 April after a bus driver reported that a woman who had boarded his bus on Brownhill Road, Catford, had initially said that she had been robbed. Officers were then told that she had been walking to work when an unknown man shouted for her to stop and kept following her after she said she did not want to speak to him.
The woman reported that the man punched her in the head and threatened that he had a gun. Police said he covered her mouth when she attempted to call for help and dragged her into a side alley off Minard Road, where the rape took place. Her phone was taken from her jacket pocket after the attack. The published account does not identify her.
She was taken to a Haven specialist sexual-assault referral centre and continues to receive support from specialist officers.
Investigators tracked the stolen phone to an area about 30 minutes’ walk from the location of the attack and four minutes from Thompson’s home. CCTV also showed him with the victim-survivor. An officer whose role included monitoring registered sex offenders, and who had previously monitored Thompson, identified him from that footage.
The official account says Thompson was a registered sex offender after a 2005 conviction for indecent assault on a woman, committed two years earlier. Detectives said the Catford attack matched his previous offending pattern. That history was one element of the background described by police alongside the phone-location evidence, CCTV and the officer’s identification.
Thompson was arrested on Tuesday 28 April. He was charged to appear at Bromley Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday 29 April and was remanded in custody. The later Old Bailey verdict establishes the result of the trial on the rape and robbery charges; the December hearing is the listed sentencing date.
The detective who led the inquiry praised the victim-survivor for reporting the incident and said specialist officers support survivors throughout investigations. He said the jury had rejected Thompson’s claim that he was not responsible for the attack.
Following the conviction, detectives said they are working to establish whether Thompson could be responsible for other sexual assaults. They said no further offences have been identified so far, but believe there may be victim-survivors who have not yet come forward. The appeal asks anyone wishing to report information relating to Thompson to contact police on 101 or to contact Crimestoppers anonymously.
The official appeal says people who do come forward will be treated with dignity, compassion and sensitivity. It also directs people aged 16 and over in England and Wales to a free 24-hour rape and sexual-abuse support line, available by telephone and online chat. The ongoing appeal concerns information that detectives can assess; it does not alter the conviction or the sentencing hearing already listed by the court.
