By Casey Neill
“THERE is something weird with this guy if he thinks this is OK. You have a sick mind, that’s what I would say.”
This was the message from a traumatised sexual assault victim to her alleged attacker at a press conference on Friday 26 August.
The woman was working in a Narre Warren South shopping centre on Narre Warren Cranbourne Road when the incident took place, about 10.30am on Tuesday 19 July.
“I was working in my pop-up store. It was still early in the morning, we’d just opened the store. It was still very quiet,” she said.
“In front of my pop-up store there’s an ATM. After he took some cash he approached me.
“He seemed to be very familiar with the brand that I was working in. I thought that he was a regular or something.
“That’s why I approached him and talked to him.
“I was a salesperson so my job was to sell a product.”
But he didn’t seem to understand what she was talking about.
“He just repeatedly said ‘you’re beautiful, you’re beautiful’,” she said.
Police want to speak with this man over the alleged assault:
“Whatever I was telling him about my product he diverted to the other direction so his main focus was me.
“I’ve assumed he speaks English as a second language. He has a heavy accent as well.
“We were talking and just before he left he sexually assaulted me.
“He pretended that it didn’t occur. He didn’t even make eye contact with me as he left.
“After the event I was in shock.
“I just stood there blankly for 10 minutes trying to digest what happened.”
She approached a co-worker who helped her to tell her boss, who contacted the police.
The victim said she was now scared to interact with strangers.
“I don’t think that I will be able to go back to this kind of job again,” she said.
“It has left me traumatised.”
The victim said her alleged attacker “has a solid build and I remember that he has a really strong grip”.
She said he went to a nearby supermarket following the assault before returning, but she was with her co-worker and he left.
Detective Senior Constable Rachael Kennedy from Dandenong Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Team (SOCIT) said she had a small amount of CCTV vision of the suspect.
“He’s described to be in his sixties, he has an olive complexion and he has dark to greying hair with a solid build,” she said.
“I believe he had been seen on previous days at the shopping complex but I haven’t had any further information to suggest that he had been seen again.”
Call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or make a confidential report at www.crimestoppersvic.com.au with any information.
