A woman from Hoorn who tracked down the Somali man who she claims attacked her and handed his details over to the police has been shocked by the police file on her case, the Telegraaf said on Thursday.

‘We were trying to find out why the investigation had proceeded so slowly,’ a spokesman for the woman said. ‘But there was no reason, and if we had not acted, that monster would still be walking round free.’

The suspect, 28-year-old Mohammed M, was arrested on February 27, four months after the attack, and is due to appear in court charged with theft and attempted rape on Friday.

The woman traced M because he stole her mobile phone during the attack and had used it to make calls and selfies. She traced the phone using the Find my iPhone app, told the police and showed them photographs of the man she claims attacked her.

A police spokesman told the Telegraaf that the fact someone had a stolen phone in their possession is not proof that they were also the attacker. ‘We went to the home where the phone was said to be four times, but each time the facts did not add up.’

Risks

A spokesman for police union Nederlandse Politiebond told the paper that there is a chronic shortage of detectives but that there is a risk attached to people hunting down criminals themselves.

‘There is a risk that people will end up not believing in the legal system,’ union chairman Jan Struijs told the paper. ‘That they think that they can take the law into their own hands.’

The paper also said the police had failed to contact two key witnesses who lived opposite the place where the woman was attacked. The two were known to the suspect and have important information, the paper said.