WATCH ABOVE: Montreal police believe they have caught the suspect in a peeping tom case at Fairview Pointe-Claire. Rachel Lau has the exclusive update.
POINTE-CLAIRE – Matthew Tod remembers September 4th like it was yesterday; the day a man took a photo of him over the stall at the Sears bathroom at Fairview Pointe-Claire.
“You don’t expect it because, I mean, it’s a mall,” said the 17-year-old.
“Generally you go somewhere and you use their bathrooms and you never expect it to happen.”
READ MORE: Alleged victim of a Fairview Pointe-Claire Peeping Tom speaks out
Now, after weeks of interviews and scanning surveillance footage, Montreal police have made an arrest.
“We were in a position to identify the suspect in that case,” said Raphael Bergeron, a spokesperson for Montreal police.
“The man was arrested on the 14th of October and he was released and will appear in court.”
Representatives from Fairview Pointe-Claire refused an interview request with Global News, saying they didn’t want to revisit the issue.
However, they did say they were glad a suspect had been caught.
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The mall did not say whether or not anything has been done to prevent similar incidents.
Global News recently went back to the bathrooms in questions.
The Sears bathroom has been repainted, removing suggestive graffiti from the wall of one of the stalls.
Those at The Baie are being completely renovated.
READ MORE: Fairview Pointe-Claire mall bathroom hotspot for sexual encounters
Both these washrooms had been pinpointed on a website as hot spots for random sexual encounters.
Tod says he feels safer going back to the mall now that the suspect has been caught.
“If there are any other victims, it’s always good to come forward because the police will actually do some good and hopefully help you as much as they can,” he said.
Benoit Langevin, Director General and Co-Founder of youth action community group AJOI, points out that youth are vulnerable and because of this, are often considered easy prey.
“I think the more we can educate our kids about our society, educate our kids about how the system works, we’re going to make citizens who know what to do in these awkward situations,” he said.
The 53-year-old suspect is facing a charge of voyeurism.
He will appear in court on November 4, 2014.
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