A RAPIST who has been terrorising women and girls in the South East, including a 10-year-old in Ashford, has struck again.

Kent Police have confirmed that a 14-year-old girl from Stevenage in Hertfordshire, who was attacked as she walked home last weekend, was the rapist's 10th victim.

The man has carried out a string of sex attacks in Kent, Surrey, Berkshire and London in under a year.

Kent's assistant chief constable David Kelly, who is leading the manhunt, said: "On the evidence we have currently I am convinced that it is the same offender." He did reveal what evidence there was to link the Stevenage rape to the other nine attacks.

The victims have included a schoolgirl who was raped on Ashford's Stanhope Estate on November 15 2001.