Police have arrested a man accused of sexually assaulting a woman in an alley behind a Norwich business in 2009 and breaking bones in her face.
Police said the victim was walking in the area of Central Avenue on April 29, 2009 when a stranger called to her, then grabbed her while she was walking toward him, pulled her into an alley behind a business, attacked her and sexually assaulted her.
When investigators met with the woman, she was distraught. She said the attacker told her he had a gun, but she never saw one, police said.
She was able to provide police a vague description of the man, who ran away after the attack, and police searched the area, but did not find anyone.
More than five and a half years later, on Jan. 12, Norwich Police Department got a break in the case when the State of Connecticut Forensic Science Laboratory linked DNA evidence from the crime scene to profiles in the national and state DNA databases, police said.
On Thursday, police found the suspect, Alexander S. Perry, 24, of Central Avenue in Norwich, walking on Central Avenue.
He has been charged with first-degree sexual assault, second-degree assault, first-degree threatening and first-degree unlawful restraint.
Perry was held on a court-set $500,000 and will be arraigned at Norwich Superior Court.
