Kenneth Bowen, 24, was arrested in Atlanta, Georgia on Tuesday for raping seven women and attacking another in a string of attacks since 2015

A former police recruit has been arrested for eight rapes across Georgia which date back to 2015.

Kenneth Thomas Bowen III, 24, was arrested on Tuesday in connection with the attacks which all took place in south Atlanta.

Police say he forced his way into victims' homes, either through an open window or by pouncing on them when they were at the door, and attacked them, some at knife-point.

For years, police struggled to catch the perpetrator but because not all of the crimes were identical, they struggled to build a suspect profile.

In June 2018, Bowen joined the Clay County police academy but he was fired in September 2018 for not showing up to work.

He was arrested on Tuesday at Walmart, where he had been working.

In March of this year, six months after being fired from the police academy, he allegedly committed the final assault on a woman whose boyfriend interrupted it by arriving home at the exact moment she was being preyed on.

Bowen allegedly fled the scene but the woman and her boyfriend were able to provide detailed descriptions of what he looked like and what kind of car he drove.

Police then started reviewing 911 calls from the neighborhoods where the attacks took place to try to find a report of anyone acting suspiciously.

Bowen was fired by the police department before ever graduating from the academy in September last year after failing to show up to work. He has since obtained work at Walmart, where he was arrested last week after police matched his DNA to the rapes. He is shown being taken to jail on Wednesday

A sketch artist has been trying for years to help police find the attacker. These are three of the sketches produced based on witness descriptions

They found a 2016 call during which one of Bowen was reported. Police officers ran a check for his name and birth date in that incident but he was not arrested.

Taking his information from that 2016 call, detectives started looking at Bowen's social media profiles.

There, they saw a picture of him with a relative who was dressed in a police uniform.

They then discovered that he too had worked with the police department, albeit briefly, and that he matched the description given by his alleged victims.

Crucially, he had arm tattoos and drove a grey Ford Focus with tinted windows - something the women had described.

Last week, authorities obtained a warrant for his DNA and tested against samples found at the eight scenes. It matched.

Bowen is now in custody charged with rape and sexual battery.

He made an initial appearance on Wednesday morning and is now being held in county jail.