Sex assaults in east Hamilton

Hamilton police have been investigating a string of sexual assaults in the east end since Friday. And shortly after our story aired at 6pm, it happened again.

In each case, a man approaches women from behind, quickly grabs their rear end, and then rides off on a bike.

17-year old Lisa Mansell, and 16-year old Trisha Forrest were walking along King St., just after 6pm when they noticed a man on a bike.

Lisa says: “Very creepy, like someone that you would actually walk away from.”

Soon after, the man snuck up the pair.

Trisha said: “He hopped on his bike, came by and slapped me on the butt, and said ‘that ass’ and carried off.”

The two girls went inside the McDonalds, called their parents, and called the police. Before police arrived, the man came back, this time wearing a different jacket.

Trisha said: “It scared the crap out of us. We were freaking out, we didn’t know what to think.”

Trisha recognized the man, from an incident three weeks earlier, when the same thing happened to her while walking to school.

Q: “Do you think it was the same guy?” Lisa said: “Absolutely, cause it’s happened to many girls and it was the same black jacket. I could recognize that anywhere.”

And it also allowed the girls to get a good look at him.

Trisha said: “Six feet, a hundred and fifty pounds, he was wearing grey track pants and a grey hoodie with a grey toque on and then when he came back again he was wearing a black jacket. He has like a patchy beard and moustache kind of look. Some hair here and there, like he doesn’t look, you know, stable.”

Monday, Hamilton police said that they have been looking for someone related to similar incidents from Friday, but they are reluctant to connect the two.

Security cameras at the McDonalds could see the man, but when asked, they would not release the tape to us. Police told Lisa and Trisha to stay indoors, and not to go out at night. But the girls are afraid of what this can become.

Lisa says: “It starts with a slap on the butt now, it gives him confidence when he does this to so many girls, he can do it to so many other girls and so much more to them too.”

Central and east-end police are looking into these incidents. We’ve been told that another incident happened at Ottawa Street and Main. So women are being told to be on alert for the next little while.