Burnley rape: Katie Hopkins outrage over ‘tanned suspect’

It came after Lancashire Police issued a witness appeal in which a wanted man was described as being ‘tanned’, after a teenager was said to have been sexually assaulted at 9am on New Year’s Day close to the Charter Walk shopping centre car park in Burnley.

The description was mocked on social media with some people saying police were frightened of describing the suspect as Asian.

However, it is understood the description publicised by police was given by the teenage complainant.

A CCTV picture was released the next day of an Asian man police wanted to speak to in connection with the attack.

A man was arrested over the attack last night and was due to be questioned by police this morning.

READ MORE: Man arrested over Burnley shopping centre car park rape

Ms Hopkins, the former Sun and MailOnline columnist, tweeted: “Rape of a 14-year-old girl in broad daylight in Burnley.

“Police description was ‘in his 30s or 40s, with short, dark, curly hair, a tanned complexion and a short beard’.

“Tanned? TANNED? What word are you scared of Burnley Police?”

Meanwhile former East Lancashire Chief Superintendent Bob Eastwood has defended his former colleagues on Twitter.

He said: "Not sure you have this right.

If they were 'scared' they wouldn't have sent the picture out would they?

"I reckon it's highly likely that the victim of this dreadful attack used that description and the police are simply reapeating what they were told."

Lancashire Police declined to comment when contacted by the Lancashire Telegraph.Ms Hopkins came to the public’s attention in 2007 when she finished third in BBC One’s The Apprentice.

She has written columns for The Sun, the Daily Mail and MailOnline, as well as presenting a talk show on LBC.

Last year she was forced to pay the food writer Jack Monroe £24,000 in damages and her £107,000 legal costs after losing a libel case over defamatory remarks made on Twitter.