Mum tells of girl's rape horror

She urged people in the Windhill and Shipley community to come forward with any new information or evidence that would help police bring him to justice.

The 38-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said: "To do this to my daughter is sick.

"No one should be violated like that. Bruises can heal and disappear but the mental harm won't go away.

"Someone out there must have more information. Please, please talk to the police, give them what they need to get a conviction."

The teenager had been walking to a friend's house along Hall Lane shortly after midnight on Tuesday, September 26, when she said she was grabbed by her hair from behind and forced into a nearby graveyard at Christ Church in Church Street.

The victim's mum said: "She told me she'd seen a man walking up and down as if he was waiting for someone.

"She didn't make eye contact because she felt a bit funny. Next thing she knew he was grabbing her hair and pulling her backward with his hand over her face."

The girl told police she was first raped in the graveyard before being frogmarched across Leeds Road, down Thackley Old Road towards the canal where she was again raped.

She was then thrown in the freezing water with her hands bound behind her.

Her mum said: "He had pulled her T-shirt over her head so she could not see and tied her hands behind her back with her jeans.

"He pushed her in the water and held her head under. She thought she was going to die.

"Something must have disturbed him and made him stop but before he ran off he told her he would kill her if the police came anywhere near him."

The desperate teenager managed to free herself and clamber out of the water before making her way to a phone box in Leeds Road from where she called police.

The victim's mother also revealed that only hours before the alleged attack happened her daughter, whom she admitted was a troubled girl, had been held in police cells in Keighley after stealing her own sister's mobile phone.

She said: "The police told me they had begged social services to give her a place to stay that night because she had told them she would not stay at home. She's got a history of running off, not going to school and getting into trouble with the police.

"Social services refused her a bed and the police had to bring her back to us but she legged it.

"She had come back again after that briefly but run off again so I reported her missing just after midnight. I was still up just before 2am when the police brought her home soaking from the canal.

"This was my worst fear, that she would run off and be harmed and abused. I've tried to get help from social services, support agencies and charities since she was three because her behaviour had spiralled out of control but no one would ever listen to me.

"Because we are a decent family we were left to sort it out ourselves.

"If I had been a bad mother, a drunk or on drugs I would have got all the help I needed by now. They were waiting for a line to be crossed, now it has."

Kath Tunstall, director of Bradford Social Services, said it would not be appropriate to discuss individual circumstances while the police investigation was continuing.

The teenager's mother said: "Whatever my daughter's done in the past, she's still my baby. We've done all the cuddling, the crying, the outbursts, thinking we'll wake up in the morning and it'll just be a bad dream but now I'm angry.

"There are a lot of what ifs' to answer. What if social services had got her a bed for the night? What if we'd been given help years ago?

"She is strong and will survive. I've got her home now but we've still got more agony to go through, more tests and one for Aids in three months. It's horrific."

The police investigation is led by Detective Superintendent Tim Forber. Anyone with information should contact police on (01274) 376100.

• A 48-year-old man, arrested in connection with inquiry, has been released on police bail pending further inquiries.