Teen's Cyberoffensive on Subway Perv
Boston cops released a cell phone image of man suspected in subway sex assaults.
Dec. 7, 2007 — -- A fast-acting high school student fed up with a man's repeated indecent behavior on a Boston subway snapped a cell phone picture that may help police track down the suspected pervert.
Boston's MBTA transit police released the photo Thursday, which shows a white-haired man who appears to be in his 50s, with a thin build wearing a beige coat and sunglasses, inside the car of a Green Line train near Boston Latin High School.
The high school girl and some of her peers delivered the photo to a school administrator, transit police spokesman Joe Pesaturo told ABC News. The girls explained that the man has been targeting high school students on the train for nearly a year, Pesaturo said, groping and flashing young women.
"He makes them very uncomfortable," Pesaturo said. "The accusations include exposing himself or inappropriately touching young women."
The school official contacted authorities Monday, and an investigation was launched. For three days, the transit police staked out the train route along Huntington Avenue during the times of day when students reported the assaults. They hoped to apprehend the man pictured in the teen's cell phone picture.
"They immediately began a surveillance investigation," Pesaturo said, adding that from Monday through Wednesday there was no sign of the man. "They suspected that he knew that one of these students snapped the picture," Pesaturo said.
On Thursday transit police released the photo to bring attention to the case. Calls with tips already have come in and police are following up on leads, Pesaturo said. If he is found, the man will be arrested on indecent assault charges.
This is not the first time that the Internet has been used by authorities as a bulletin board to identify and capture a suspected sexual deviant.
In October, Interpol arrested Christopher Paul Neil, 32, a Canadian man wanted in Thailand on multiple pedophile charges.
Interpol posted an image of Neil on the international police agency's Web site that had been unscrambled to reveal the suspect's true image. The pictures featured Neil abusing young Asian boys.
