Metro Vancouver Transit Police arrest alleged repeat TransLink groper

Metro Vancouver Transit Police have arrested an alleged repeat transit groper.

Grant Lionel Houle, 39, was arrested last Tuesday after allegedly groping a woman on a SkyTrain.

According to police, the incident started around 7:15 a.m. when a woman boarded the train at Nanaimo Station.

As the train was approaching Commercial-Broadway station, she felt someone repeatedly grope her buttocks, police said.

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When she turned to look, she saw the man’s hand near where she’d been touched, and asked another passenger to push the onboard alarm.

1:57 Vancouver police launch anti-groping campaign

Police said both the woman and Houle exited the train at the station, and the woman told a SkyTrain attendant what had happened.

Staff contacted Transit police, who arrested Houle a short time later.

When officers ran his name, they realized he was already wanted on an outstanding warrant related to another alleged sexual assault aboard a TransLink bus in June.

Police say Houle is now facing two charges of sexual assault.