POLICE admitted today they have been disappointed with the response to appeals for information following a brutal sex attack on a 26-year-old woman in the early hours of New Years Day.

By James Fraser

POLICE admitted today they have been disappointed with the response to appeals for information following a brutal sex attack on a 26-year-old woman in the early hours of New Years Day.

But, in a more positive development, house-to-house enquiries have managed to narrow down the victim's movements before being attacked.

The victim was walking home after a night out in the town along the Fore Street/Neptune Quay area of Ipswich at 1 am. She later woke up in the front garden of a house in Cavendish Street.

Now police believe she was spotted close to the Vodka Bar in Neptune Quay and near to the Neptune Quay flats around 1am on New Year's Day.

When she woke up, she had facial injuries including two black eyes, a broken nose, bruising and a medical examination showed she had been sexually assaulted.

Det Insp Neville Farthing said: "We are trying to piece together what happened between 1am and 6am on new Year's morning. We are working with our victim hoping she will recall more details.

"Members of the public may have saw her with or without others in the area and we need to hear from them as a matter of urgency."

Police have taken the unusual step of releasing the details of the victim in a bid to hunt down the attacker.

She is 5ft 4ins tall, of slight build, with black bobbed hair and was wearing dark clothing, black trousers and carrying a large shoulder bag.

People who saw the woman, wearing a black imitation fir coat, in the areas between 1 am and 6 am, or the attacker, should telephone Det Sgt Duncan Shepherd on 01473 383187 or Ipswich CID Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.