Woman ‘raped' at park in popular UK seaside town in early hours as man, 44, arrested
RAPE PROBE Woman 'raped' at park in popular UK seaside town in early hours as man, 44, arrested
A WOMAN was allegedly raped at a park in a popular seaside town, as cops arrest a man.
The attack reportedly happened in Castle Park, Whitehaven, Cumbria, between 1.25am and 2.30am on Sunday.
A 44-year-old man, from Whitehaven, has been arrested on suspicion of rape.
He remains in custody and a police presence continues to patrol the the area while enquiries continue.
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A cordon in Castle Park also remains in place, with members of the public urged to avoid the area.
Cumbria Police are supporting the victim with specialist officers.
A spokesperson for the force said: "Detectives have made an arrest as part of an investigation into a report of rape in Castle Park, Whitehaven in the early hours of Sunday morning (17 August).
"A 44-year-old man from Whitehaven was arrested on suspicion of rape. He remains in police custody.
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"Police received the report at 2:32am, with the incident believed to have occurred between 1:25am and 2:30am.
"Detectives are continuing to appeal for anyone with information during that time.
"You can report information online at www.cumbria.police.uk/report-it quoting incident number 36 of 17 August 2025.
"You can also phone on 101.
"Alternatively, you can contact Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111."
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A woman was allegedly raped in Castle Park, Whitehaven
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Many of the pages had previously been set up under different names, according to Facebook transparency information that can be found on individual pages. In some cases, it's possible to see how these pages were re-branded versions of profiles belonging to drop-shipping websites that operated in other countries. For example, a Facebook page for shows that it was first set up in July 2024 under the name NovaLouise Danmark, which corresponds with the name of a website that has attracted similar Truspliot complaints as other drop-shipping websites. The page, which has more than 12,000 followers, later changed name to Ciara Cork on 18 October 2024, and began running ads under that name two days later. In total, 31 of the 91 'Irish' Facebook pages we looked at had been set up under a different name. Other pages have also been updated so that they redirect to completely new stores which target shoppers in countries outside Ireland. One example is Mohony Dublin, which could be found via the URL September 2024 when it claimed to be a shop based in Dublin. However, we found that inputting the same URL into a browser now leads to a new store called Butik Radecka Gydnia, which claims to be an entirely different boutique based in the Polish city of Gydnia. The Journal Investigates was also able to piece together similarities between a number of Irish-appearing and international websites through an analysis of their source code. Source code essentially contains the instructions for how a website is laid out and how it performs certain functions, though it occasionally reveals where a website is based or other identifying information like a specific Google Ad profile IDs. Our analysis of source code found further evidence indicating a Dutch element to the scam: of the 95 websites we could access via an active URL or through online archiving tools like the Wayback Machine, 63 said they were hosted in the Netherlands. Other stores were found to be based in Austria, Belgium, Finland, Italy, the UK and the United States. Just two websites claimed to be hosted in Ireland, and listed specific physical addresses on their website. However, Google Maps shows both of these addresses were separate residential properties in Dublin; one of these online stores had 'Cork' in its URL and the other provided a landline contact number whose area code corresponded with parts of Cavan. Meta investigation The Journal Investigates contacted Meta to ask what actions the company was taking against the pages advertising drop-shipping websites and those who are behind them. A company spokesperson suggested that those responsible are 'driven by ruthless cross-border criminal networks that use sophisticated schemes' to target social media users, and that it was continuing to invest in technology to tackle them. 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