SURREY — A young woman who endured being groped by another SkyTrain passenger for more than 30 minutes last Thursday is being lauded for taking note of the creep's actions after he disembarked and then providing Transit Police with an "excellent" description which led to a suspect's arrest.
"She did super-well to have her wits about her," Transit Police spokeswoman Anne Drennan said of the victim.
Drennan noted that during the ordeal the young woman text-messaged her mom but "in a perfect world" she should have texted the Transit Police at 87 77 77.
It happened on May 23rd. The victim boarded SkyTrain at King George Station in Whalley at 4:10 p.m., and sat next to a window. Despite the train car being almost empty, a man who got on board at Surrey Central Station sat down beside her.
"She was trapped against the window," Drennan said. The man is alleged to have put his hand on the young woman's bare thigh and despite her efforts to push him away, groped her all the way to Burrard Station.
"The young woman texted her mother but was too afraid of the man to do anything further," Drennan said. After the man disembarked the young woman followed him out of the station, watched him board a bus on Burrard and then called Transit Police who arrested a 60-year-old Surrey man at Arbutus Street and Cornwall Avenue.
The suspect was released on a promise to appear in Vancouver provincial court on Aug. 2nd with conditions that he doesn't contact the woman or be on SkyTrain or Canada Line property. His name has not been released.
Drennan said he is "known to police" but he is not the same 60-year-old Surrey man who was charged with sexual assault in April, accused of forcefully groping a young woman after she boarded SkyTrain at the Surrey Central Station.
In that case, a young woman boarded the train at 6:50 p.m. and a man boarded at the next stop north, Gateway Station, and sat in front of her.
"He turned and stared at her, repeatedly telling her she was pretty," Drennan said at the time. "The man was so intent in his staring that the woman was able to take a photo of him without him being aware. After several moments of continuous staring, the man reached around and allegedly forcefully pushed his hand between the woman's legs."
Drennan said the woman pushed him away but he kept staring at her until he got off the train at Columbia Station.
The woman disembarked at the 22nd Street Station and reported the incident to a SkyTrain attendant who then called police.
tom.zytaruk@thenownewspaper.com