A SAFETY campaign has been launched to protect and reassure people using the park where a brutal rapist launched an horrific attack.

Aerial photographs and video footage taken from the Lancashire Police helicopter have been used to draw up a strategy for the Billinge Woods and Witton Park area of Blackburn.

Police have joined forces with park rangers and Blackburn Council to begin a public Park Watch initiative after identifying problem and risk areas.

Other measures being considered include:

Increasing lighting around the main areas of the park.

Cutting back foliage to improve visibility in isolated areas.

Encouraging more people to use the area, increasing the chances of suspicious behaviour being noticed.

A 22-year-old woman was dragged into trees and subjected to a horrific assault in Billinge Woods on October 8. Concern has spread among park users after the attack, which occurred in broad daylight, although police have stressed that the rape is the only serious sexual assault to have taken place in the area.

The Lancashire Police helicopter has taken video and still pictures of the park to help officers draw up a crime profile of the area.

Park Watch schemes, which encourage people to report crimes and suspicious incidents to police and park rangers, have already been launched in other parks in the Blackburn area.

Blackburn Council's director of community and leisure services, Eddie Runswick, said: "It is a coincidence that this initiaive has begun after the rape but everyone is very concerned about what happened in the park and this sort of scheme can only help improve the safety of people in the area." Sgt Alan Holt, of Blackburn's crime prevention office, added: "The police in partnership with the council and park rangers are actively doing things to reassure the public about their personal safety."

The move has come as police hunting the brutal rapist revealed thay are to use hi-tech DNA testing in a bid to catch their man.

A number of people already interviewed by detectives are to be singled out in a bid to eliminate them from the inquiry.

Samples will be matched against a strand of the rapist's DNA taken from the victim.

Police have stressed that the move is not a "mass testing" and will focus on people in the Blackburn area, although people from other parts of the country may also be asked for a sample.

Samples will be taken on a voluntary basis and police have stressed that the procedure is painless.

Det Chief Insp Mick Langdon, of Blackburn CID, said: "Detectives working on the rape inquiry are due to use the technique of DNA screening in order to eliminate people from the investigation.

"The screening will not be a mass screening and will be prioritised in the first instance."

Rape squad detectives are following up 750 lines of inquiry in a bid to catch the rapist.

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