TORONTO

A predator believed to have terrorized a south Etobicoke neighbourhood since 2012 — breaking into as many as 20 homes in the middle of the night and often sexually assaulting women as they slept — may have struck again Friday.

An elderly woman was asleep in a bedroom on the main floor of a house on Brentwood Rd. N., near Bloor St. W. and Royal York Rd., when she was awakened by a noise and looked up to see an intruder standing over her, Toronto Police said.

“The victim was alarmed and she screamed,” Det.-Sgt. Madelaine Tretter, of 22 Division, said.

The senior, who wasn’t home alone, initially thought one of her family members was up and around, Tretter said.

But once the woman’s vision adjusted she saw the stranger in her room.

The man ran off out the front door and may have used a bicycle to make his getaway, Tretter said. A bike was later recovered but it’s not yet known if it’s the same one.

Cops searched the area, with help from the K9 Unit, but were unable to find the man.

Tretter said there have been between 12 and 20 break and enters in the area bounded by Bloor St. W., The Queensway, Islington Ave. and the Humber River since 2012.

And investigators believe the same man is behind most, if not all, of the incidents.

The break-ins typically occur during the warmer summer months between the hours of 12 a.m. and 5 a.m., she said. And many of the cases involved sex attacks on women.

Two such incidents occurred on the same night last month.

Investigators are still trying to determine if the same intruder committed the latest break-in.

“Right now we are looking at any possible connections,” Tretter said.

She said there are many similarities but also some differences.

In the past the intruder has mostly entered homes through a window after cutting the screen, but there were “no signs of forced entry” in the latest break-in.

The intruder appears to have entered through an unlocked front door.

“It’s extremely frustrating” that no arrests have been made in any of the incidents, Tretter said.

She urged area residents to keep their doors and windows locked at all times, ensure their home is properly lit and to turn on their alarm system if they have one.

Police are looking for a man who may be dark-skinned, about 6-feet-tall, with a stocky build.

Anyone with information should call police at 416-808-2200 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.

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For three summers in a row, residents of a south Etobicoke neighbourhood have lived in fear, hoping they won’t be next.

Understandably, the thought of waking up in the middle of the night to find an intruder in their bedroom has many, especially women, feeling unnerved.

“It’s disturbing,” Julia Connelly said Friday, in the wake the latest of some 20 such incidents in her community. “It’s just really unsettling.”

The victim in the latest incident, on Brentwood Rd. N., wasn’t sexually assaulted. But many of the past break-ins have involved sex attacks, often on elderly women.

“That’s just sick,” Connelly said, adding she can’t understand who would do such a thing.

Like many area residents, she has followed the news over the past couple summers and was stunned to learn the break and enters have started again.

Friday’s incident marked the third time this summer a woman has awakened to find a strange man standing over her.

In a similar spate of break-ins in the neighbourhood last summer four homes were broken into on a single night and in one incident a woman was sexually assaulted.

In the summer of 2012 at least nine homes were targetted on two separate occasions. In those incidents, the intruder sexually assaulted three women, 62, 70 and 91.

Since the summer break-ins began, area resident Laurie Filice said she “triple checks” that her doors and windows are locked each night to protect herself.

“But it’s still scary,” she said.

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Toronto Police believe the same man may be behind up to 20 overnight break-ins over three summers in a south Etobicoke neighbourhood, many of which included sexual assault.

Here is are some of the incidents in the area bounded by Bloor St. W., The Queensway, Islington Ave. and the Humber River:

Summer 2014 so far

June 7 - A man broke into a home near Royal York Rd. and Evans Ave. through a window just after midnight, sexually assaulted a woman, 63, and took off.

June 7 - A man entered through the back door of a house near Royal York Rd. and Evans Ave. around 1:30 a.m., sexually assaulted a woman, 30, and fled.

July 11 - An elderly woman in a house on Brentwood Rd. N., near Bloor St. W. and Royal York Rd., was awakened around 4:30 a.m. by an intruder in her bedroom. The woman screamed prompting the man, who entered the home through an unlocked front door, to flee.

Summer 2013

July 7 - A man broke in to four homes near Berry and Parklawn Rds. between 12:55 a.m. and 3:30 a.m. and during one of the break-ins a woman was sexually assaulted as she slept.

Summer 2012