A DISTRAUGHT teenager last night fought back tears as she described her terror at being grabbed by a sex attacker in the street.

The 17-year-old spoke out as detectives issued an e-fit picture of the suspect believed to be behind the attack.

The girl described how she felt humiliated as she fled from her attacker after he pulled off her leggings and one of her boots.

She said: “I’m upset and angry.

“I’m not sleeping, replaying what has happened. I can’t get to sleep, replaying walking down there, getting attacked, the whole thing, when he touched me.”

The teenager, who cannot be named to protect her identity, was walking with her hood up on her way to her grandmother’s house when she was grabbed from behind by the stranger in Sandy Lane West, Littlemore.

She said: “I was so scared I didn’t really feel anything. I was just scared he was going to rape me.

“I just said to stop it, a couple of words – that was it. I wasn’t screaming, I was crying. It wasn’t having any impact on him.”

Police believe the attacker was disturbed by car headlights and ran off, leaving his victim at the side of the road.

After being attacked, the girl ran to her grandmother’s home and raised the alarm.

The victim said she had to give up her job after being unable to face returning to work after the attack on February 18.

Detectives investigating the case believe that the attack was random and not premeditated or linked to any other sex crime in the Oxford area.

The teenager said: “I know he wasn’t stalking me. It wasn’t me in particular that he wanted.

“He’s humiliated me. No one deserves to be attacked. I’ve had to give up a job I enjoyed.”

A team of four detectives are continuing to scour CCTV footage from the area and are hoping the e-fit of the attacker will help jog someone’s memory.

They are still trying to identify a white man wearing an Oxford United tracksuit who was standing on Sandy Lane West shortly before the attack happened, between 7.15pm and 7.50pm, who they think could be a key witness.

Earlier appeals have already resulted in a number of phone calls from the public, which have led to new lines of enquiry. Det Sgt Ian Wood praised the teenager for helping the police appeal.

He said: “I was pleased that she felt that she was in a position where she could help us to make a public appeal to hopefully get people in that area to come forward.

“It can’t be easy for her and she and she is quite clearly upset and traumatised. She’s had to think long and hard about it and it has taken a certain amount of bravery to speak out.”

The attacker is described as black, in his late 20s to early 30s, about 6ft tall, of a thin build and clean-shaven, and he spoke with a deep voice.

He was wearing a dark striped beanie hat, a black shiny padded jacket, dark wide-leg jeans with a distinctive white or light-coloured line pattern on the right back pocket and black trainers, possibly Nike Air-style, with a hole in the heel and a fluorescent green band round the back of the heel.

Ds Wood said it was too early to know whether the attacker had any history of committing previous sexual assaults, but there was a possibility he could reoffend. He said: “That is our concern – it has to be, because we haven’t caught him.”

Anyone with information should call Ds Wood or Dc Steve Martin on 101 or the charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.