UPDATE
The man who assaulted four women in Ghent at the end of last year has been identified thanks to an investigative report by ‘FAROEK’. Yesterday our program distributed surveillance footage showing how the man repeatedly approached young women, struck up a conversation and then suddenly tried to kiss them.
Axelle Pardon, Ellen Nagtegals
Faroek Özgünes, together with the police and the judiciary, searches for perpetrators of crimes, witnesses and missing persons, and asks for the help of readers and viewers. Follow all his investigation reports closely via our file.
Two friends were shopping in Ghent on December 29 last year when they were suddenly harassed on the street by a man with dark hair. “He tried to grab me and kiss me,” Silke, an alias for a young 22-year-old woman, testified in our newspaper yesterday. “I was able to reflexively pull my scarf over my mouth just in time.” When her friend dragged her into a perfume shop to shake off the man, the man chased them and shouted, “I know you!” and “I love you!”
Barely five minutes after the man harassed the two friends, he tried to kiss another girl on a platform at the Gent-Sint-Pieters station. Surveillance footage showed that when her boyfriend intervened, the man punched him in the face. Moments later, the man harassed two more women.
Further research
“The man was recognized and identified,” the Ghent police now reports. “He will be heard.” The couple who were harassed on the platform also contacted the police. The investigation continues in the meantime.