Detectives probing the abduction and rape of a Shoebury woman have arrested a man on suspicion of her kidnap.

The man - from Yorkshire - was held by police on Saturday and taken to Grays Police Station, from where the investigation is being headed.

He was questioned throughout the rest of Saturday and Sunday morning and then released on police bail without charge until August.

Officers from Essex have been working on the case with colleagues from Kent after the 21-year-old woman - who has learning difficulties - revealed details of her terrible ordeal to detectives.

She had been collecting money for a cancer charity outside M25 Moto service station in Thurrock after travelling there from her home in Shoebury.

A man convinced her to get into his car after stopping and talking to her for almost two hours. He then drove her to Norfolk on the A11 before stopping and taking a room at the Breckland Lodge motel in Attleborough.

In the secrecy of the motel room, he raped the young woman and held her captive overnight before abandoning her the following day.

Published Monday, June 16, 2003

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