By ANEEKA SIMONIS
A 21-YEAR-OLD Narre Warren woman who allegedly spotted a “creepy” older man touching her younger sister in a Fountain Gate lolly shop said she was shaken by the encounter, which ended in a second physical assault.
The woman, who had taken her 10-year-old sister to Discount Lollie Shop before heading to the movies, said the man approached them at about 2.50pm on Tuesday 13 January.
“He was just standing there staring at us in the same aisle the whole time. I didn’t want to look at him or give him any reason to talk to us,” the shaken older sister, who did not want to be identified, recalled.
She said she told her younger sister she was going to the next aisle but a sense of dread flooded over her which drew her back into the aisle, where she found the man’s arm around her sister.
“He took the first chance he could get to talk to her,” she said.
The man, who the 10-year-old said was telling her she was ‘a good girl’, forcefully grabbed the 21-year-old girl when she tried to pull her sister away.
“I told him we were leaving and he got a tight grip on my arm and told us to ‘stay here and you’re not going anywhere’,” the older sister alleged.
“I finally got him off my arm … I was so scared I ran out of the store straight away.”
The 21-year-old said she returned to the store days later to report the incident and was told their security camera did not cover the aisle where the alleged incident occurred.
The girls’ mum, who works in Pakenham, said she planned to report the incident to police in hope they might find CCTV footage of the man.
“You just don’t know what could have happened … he could have grabbed her and gone off,” she said.
The man has been described as being very short, in his early sixties, of Indian or Sri-Lanka appearance with white hair and no facial hair.
A security representative from Fountain Gate Westfield said they could only issue CCTV images under police authority.
