Crime | Resident accused of sexually harassing bus passenger

A 23-year-old male local resident has been accused of sexually harassing a woman also in her twenties during a bus ride, a Public Security Police Force (PSP) spokesperson revealed yesterday in a press conference.

The case was reported by the victim on April 10, right after the events occurred. She headed to a police station and gave her testimony, describing the physical features of the attacker.
The police were said to have done an immediate follow up on the case and the next day (April 11) conducted a manhunt in near where the crime took place at Ferreira do Amaral Square, between 4.45 p.m. and 6.30 p.m., at the end of which officers spotted a man matching the victim’s description and followed him onto the bus.

The report from the officers that followed the suspect noted that he kept looking and staring at women both at the bus stop and on the bus. After he got off the bus, officers stopped him and took him for questioning.

In the investigation that followed, the man admitted to the assault on the previous day, explaining to the officers that whenever he gets in a bus he feels “sexually aroused” and “compelled to engage in sexual behavior.” The suspect admitted that on April 10 he was “excited” about two ladies on the bus and started to masturbate and tried to expose his genitals to at least one of them. The suspect, identified as  an engineer, had been involved in a similar case in 2016 that led to an accusation of “insult” by the Public Prosecutions Office. At that time, the law that regulates sexual harassment cases had not been approved.

In a separate case, authorities are looking for eyewitnesses of a traffic accident that occurred on Sunday in the Estrada Governador Nobre de Carvalho in Taipa, which involved a bus hitting and killing a pedestrian.

According to the report by the PSP, the bus was coming from Rotunda do Istmo and heading to Praça Ouvidor de Arriaga, and hit an 80 year-old local resident on the Estrada Governador Nobre de Carvalho at around 8:45a.m.

The pedestrian was transported to the public hospital but was pronounced dead at arrival.

Tests performed on the bus driver found no alcohol or other substances in his blood and the PSP is calling on citizens that might have seen the accident to contact the PSP Traffic Department.

Two women fall for rental scheme

A LOCAL insurance intermediary, a 27-year-old woman, has been accused by two other local women of swindling in a scheme involving an alleged renting of housing units at a lower price to then re-rent them to third parties for a higher amount. The two local women, a student and a real estate mediator also in their late twenties, reportedly invested HKD10,000 and HKD68,000 respectively in such a scheme but immediately lost contact with the suspect after payment. The suspect was caught by the PJ on April 12 and admitted to the crimes, saying that this rental arrangement never existed and that it was just an excuse to get money from the victims.