Rayleigh: Girl reports rape by five men as she walked home Published duration 19 January 2014

image copyright Other image caption Police said the e-fit showed the "main perpetrator"

Police in Essex have begun a rape investigation after a teenage girl came forward to report an attack by five men nearly three years ago.

The girl, then 13, said she was attacked by a group aged between 25 and 35, as she walked along an alleyway in Rayleigh on 24 February, 2011.

She said they dragged her to a nearby field where the attack continued.

Police said she had been too frightened to report the attack until she talked to her mother earlier this month.

Specialist officers from Essex Police sexual offences investigation team have interviewed her and prepared an e-fit image of the main suspect.

Det Con Danny Cooper said: "This was a terrifying assault by five men on a girl who was aged 13 at the time.

"She was traumatised and remained scared of the men until she found the courage to tell her mother what had happened.

"We want to hear from anyone in the area of the Birds Estate who has any information about this incident or from anyone who can identify the man in the e-fit who was the main perpetrator."