A male non-resident worker from the mainland was arrested on Saturday for sexually harassing two local females on Friday night, Public Security Police (PSP) spokeswoman Erica Cheong Im Sim said at a regular press conference yesterday.
The 52-year-old married suspect surnamed Chen told the police that he works as an administrator of a property management company.
According to Cheong, the Public Security Police received reports about two sexual harassment cases on Friday night. A junior secondary school pupil aged under 16, accompanied by her mother, went to a police station to report the case later that night, saying that the incident happened when she was walking with her mother past a building in Rua dos Currais at about 7:40 p.m. A man wearing a black jacket, black trousers and black shoes, and carried a black rucksack, suddenly touched her lower body. She was so scared at the time that she only told her mother about it later. Afterwards, they decided to report the case to the police.
According to Cheong, another female, who is in her twenties, reported to the police on Friday night that she had been sexually harassed by a man wearing black clothes and shoes earlier that night. She told the police that a man suddenly patted her private parts when she walking near a bus stop in Rua Marginal do Canal das Hortas at about 7:50 p.m. She responded to the harassment by yelling at the man and even followed him. However, the man ran away towards Avenida do General Castelo Branco. The victim took a photo of the man’s back and then reported the case to the police.
Thanks to CCTV footage from the area, the Public Security Police identified Chen and believe that he is the suspect in the two cases according to the information provided by the two victims, namely Chen’s appearance as well as the occurrence of the two cases within just 10 minutes in the same area, Cheong said.
PSP officers arrested Chen at about 3 a.m. the next day near the sitting-out area in Avenida do Conselheiro Borja. Chen admitted that he had touched the two victims’ on the lower abdomen when he walked in the area on his way to work. However, he claimed that these were just the movements of his hands when he was walking and denied intentional sexual harassment, according to Cheong.
Chen was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) on Saturday, facing sexual harassment charges, according to Cheong.
This handout photo provided by the Public Security Police (PSP) yesterday shows the suspect being escorted by two PSP officers to a vehicle in Ilha Verde district on Saturday.
