UCLA student held in attempted rape on campus
UCLA police have arrested a student on suspicion of attempted rape and related crimes after an attack on a female student who was making a predawn cellphone call outside a residence hall on campus.
The suspect was identified as Thaddeus Staniforth, 25, a UCLA student from Fullerton. He was being held in lieu of $1-million bail at the Men’s Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles, UCLA officials said in a statement.
Staniforth was arrested Friday night at his dorm room at the Delta Terrace residence hall, police said.
The attempted rape occurred about 3:30 a.m. Wednesday when a female student outside Delta Terrace was grabbed and taken to another location, police said. The attacker threw the woman to the ground and straddled her, police said.
The attacker then stopped the assault and walked away. The woman was scratched, police said.
Officers said the attack appeared to be unrelated to other incidents reported in March in which women at UCLA reported being grabbed in the crotch or knocked to the ground in attempted sexual assaults. The suspects in those cases fit different descriptions.
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