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A man sought by police for raping a German tourist near Raglan matches the description of a man behaving offensively in front of women on local beaches, police say.
Women have complained of being approached or followed by the man who was "performing indecent acts", police said in a statement today.
The offender is described as a tall caucasian male in his late 30s to late 40s, well tanned and of slim but muscular build, with short grey-brown hair.
He was last seen at Ngurunui (Wainui) Beach, near Raglan, on December 13 at about 3pm.
The German tourist was raped two days later 24 hours before she was due to fly home at the end of her holiday.
The 43-year-old woman was threatened with a knife and then raped while visiting the Te Toto Gorge Lookout Scenic Reserve.
Police said at the time the victim had described her attacker as being in his 30s or 40s with an athletic body.
She said the rapist had olive skin and grey-blonde hair which may have been bleached by the sun.
Waikato district police spokesman Tony Sasso said police weren't saying the rapist and the man behaving offensively were the same person.
"At this stage we don't know if there's a link." He said it appeared that the descriptions matched, but "we're talking about a beach resort in summer time - who knows".
Police wanted to find the man behaving offensively so they could either exclude him as a suspect in the rape, or pursue further investigations.
Police said they were also looking for a four-door, square-shaped vehicle from the late '70s or '80s, coloured white/silver or pale green in connection with the rape.
They had received an account of a person driving along the road from the reserve "like a bat out of hell" toward Raglan after the attack.
People with information about either case have been asked to call the Raglan police on (07) 825 8200.
- NZPA
