Man charged with indecent behaviour after teen girls stalked in Kingswood
Police have made an arrest over disturbing incidents in Kingswood, in which a man acted indecently towards teenage girls on a busy road.
Police & Courts
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A man has been arrested after an investigation into two disturbing incidents at Kingswood.
Police say a man asked teenage girls for directions while behaving in an indecent manner in two separate occasions.
The two incidents occurred on Friday and Monday and both involved Unley High School girls being approached on Hillview Rd.
Following investigations, police arrested a 31-year-old Glenalta man at his address early Wednesday afternoon. He was charged with four counts of indecent behaviour, following similar incidents that occurred at the Park Holme Shopping Centre on July 18, and Hurtle Square on Friday, July 31, where he allegedly behaved in an indecent manner towards female victims.
He was also charged with one count of breaching his bail. He was refused police bail to appear in the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Thursday.
In the first incident, the man was driving a silver hatchback with teardrop-shaped headlights.
He stopped next to two teenage girls walking on Hillview Road to ask them for directions – at the busy time of 9am last Friday.
One of the girls saw the man, who has short, orange curly hair and freckles, acting in an indecent manner. Both students ran back to school, where staff called police.
The man returned to the same street about 1.15pm on Monday and asked another girl for directions. This time, he was in a small, black, late-model car.
He asked the teenager a number of questions before she realised he was acting in an indecent manner. She walked away to a safe place and called triple-0 immediately.
Unley High School principal Greg Rolton sent a letter to parents, confirming the girls are students there.
Mr Rolton commended the girls’ quick-thinking to call police, while also encouraging parents to discuss personal safety.
Detective Chief Inspector Scott Fitzgerald said the “sexualised behaviour” is concerning.
“It’s something that certainly (the girls) did not expect as they are walking down the road,” he said.
“We want to make sure that people are able to walk down the road and not be confronted behaving in a manner that is not appropriate.”
A computer-generated image, showing the likeness of the man, was released on Tuesday.
Chief-Insp Fitzgerald believes the wanted man has good knowledge of the Kingswood area “because of where it occurred and some of the questions he was asking”.
The Education Department issued a safety alert to all nearby schools, including Mitcham Primary School.
Police are investigating a separate incident in the nearby suburb of Millswood, where a man indecently assaulted a teenage girl at Orphanage Park just after 3pm on Sunday July 26.
Chief-Insp Fitzgerald believes the two incidents are not related, because the descriptions of the two men are different.
Anyone with information on any of the incidents is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or report online.
