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Man facing two sexual assault charges after groping incident on SkyTrain

Transit Police tracked down the suspect on a pedestrian overpass
19729016_web1_8523502_web1_20170914-KCN-M-CommercialBroadwayStation-1200x800
Commercial-Broadway SkyTrain Station (Wikimedia Commons)

A man wanted for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman on transit has been arrested after another alleged sexual assault.

Grant Lionel Houle, 39, was arrested last Tuesday, Metro Vancouver Transit Police said in a Tuesday news release.

The arrest happened after a woman said she felt a hand groping her buttocks on the SkyTrain as it was approaching Commercial-Broadway Station. When she looked around, she saw a man next to her with his hand near where she had been touched.

She asked a passenger to push the silent alarm button for her, and both the woman and the man got off at the next stop.

Transit Police tracked down the suspect on a pedestrian overpass shortly after he got off the train.

Houle, who has no fixed address is “well known” to police and is now facing two counts of sexual assault.

The arrest comes after Vancouver police and Transit Police launched a HandsOff! anti-groping campaign last month. Police investigated 75 reports of groping on public transit in 2018.

READ MORE: Hands Off! campaign targets gropers on public transit, in bars in Vancouver

READ MORE: Vancouver advocate says anti-groping police campaign isn’t enough to stop predators


@katslepian

katya.slepian@bpdigital.ca

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