Florida sees rash of spring-break rapes

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., March 17 (UPI) -- Six alleged rapes in Florida have occurred during the first week of spring break, Daytona Beach police said.

One rape allegedly occurred in a men's washroom at Ocean Center on Sunday, during which the victim could not get a good look at her attacker because he held her hair while he raped her, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reported. No one has been arrested in that incident.

Reported rapes usually are on the rise in March because of spring break, the News-Journal said.

"All of last year we had a total of 41 sexual assaults. Here we have six in one week," said police chief Mike Chitwood.

In another incident, 26-year-old Donco Mitrov of Daytona Beach is accused of raping a woman who was drunk when he met her. He allegedly plied her with more alcohol and raped her twice in the hallways at a beachfront hotel, police said.

Mitrov was charged with sexual battery and released from jail on $20,000 bond, police said.

The other four rapes happened behind a beachfront restaurant, at another hotel, and one after a woman met a man at a nightclub and invited him to go with her, the police chief said.