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Police made wanted posters using this cellphone photo of an alleged molester on the T. (MBTA HANDOUT) |
The terrified 16-year-old decided she had had enough.
For about a year, the white-haired, middle-aged man had been harassing high school girls on the trolley, groping them, and exposing himself as they rode the Green Line home from Boston Latin School near Brigham Circle.
Last Tuesday, the 16-year-old, a junior, took a step that MBTA police say will help them catch the perpetrator.
She pulled out her camera cellphone and waved it high in the air, as though she had no reception. Then, she snapped a photo, capturing an image of the man in sunglasses, beige dress shirt, and beige coat.
"I decided it was time to do this," she said. "When I saw him, this thing kicked in me and said 'Do it, you have to do it.' "
Yesterday the MBTA released the photo of the man, who has not been identified, and said he was wanted for indecent assault and battery.
Sergeant Michael Rutledge, the lead investigator on the case, praised the girl's quick thinking.
"Very brave," Rutledge said. "She's very smart."
The junior, whose name the Globe is withholding because of its policy of not naming victims of sex crimes, first saw the perpetrator last winter. As she rode the train, he walked behind her and seemed to reach for the pole. Then he groped her.
At first she thought it was an accident, but in the months that followed she heard from friends at Boston Latin that a man that looked like the one who had assaulted her had also molested them. They noticed a pattern: He would get on the train at the Brigham Circle or Longwood Avenue stop about 2 p.m. and ride the Green Line all the way to Copley Square.
"I noticed him more and more. My friends noticed him," the junior said. "That's why we decided it was time to say something."
When she saw him last week, she immediately recognized him.
"He wears the same thing every day," she said. "Same sunglasses, same coat, same jeans, same everything. Someone does that to you, you remember them for a while."
After she took the photo, she and three other friends who had been his victims approached the school's assistant headmaster, Malcolm Flynn, and told him they had a picture of the perpetrator.
Flynn asked them to e-mail him the photo, which he quickly sent to the police.
"I think they're glad they did this because something may be done now," Flynn said yesterday. "I hope they find this guy."
Rutledge said police released the photo yesterday because they have been unable to find the perpetrator on the train and believe he may have changed his pattern. Rutledge said he is hopeful that the photo will generate tips and compel other people who may have been victimized to come forward.
"When something like this happens, you feel uncomfortable, you question whether this is really happening, and you want to give people the benefit of the doubt," he said. "Unfortunately that's what people prey upon. There are predators out there that hope that people will be so embarrassed or unsure of themselves they won't say anything."
Yesterday afternoon, students waiting near the Longwood Avenue T stop said they admired the junior's actions.
"I think it's really brave to do that," said Bonnie Ho, a Boston Latin student from the South End. "I wouldn't have. I would have been scared."
The junior said she was frightened. She was sure the perpetrator noticed, because after she snapped the photo he took a couple of steps back. He made no other movements, but the junior was still nervous.
"I didn't know what was going to happen and I was so scared something was going to happen. What if he follows me home?" she said.
She even felt some guilt about playing a role in what might lead to an arrest.
"I didn't want to make such a big deal about it," she said. "I didn't want to tell everybody and get people in trouble."
Then she thought about it.
And she was happy that she had acted.
"It came to me that I had to do it," she said. "I decided I don't care. This guy has to get in trouble."
Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com.
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
