A Toronto-based lawyer has been arrested in connection with a rash of sexual assaults targeting teenaged girls in midtown Toronto.
The first incident occurred at around 8 a.m. on Sep. 12. Police say that a 15-year-old girl was in the vicinity of Yonge Street and Eglinton Avenue when she was approached and sexually assaulted by the suspect. Police allege that the same girl was then deliberately targeted and sexually assaulted again by the same suspect as she waited outside Eglinton Station at around 8 a.m. on Sept. 16.
It is further alleged that the suspect also committed two other sexual assaults that day.
At around 2 p.m., police allege that the suspect approached and sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl who was in the food court at the Yonge Eglinton Centre. The suspect then allegedly approached and sexually assaulted a 16-year-old girl who was walking inside Yonge-Bloor Station at around 8:30 p.m.
Police say that in all of the alleged sexual assaults the suspect targeted victims who were in busy areas.
“Based on the suspect’s behavior and observations that we have made on the video surveillance we are concerned that there are more victims,” Det.-Const. Matt Pinfold told reporters on Thursday. “I ask those victims to contact us at Toronto Police Sex Crimes.”
Pinfold said that police were able to use surveillance camera footage to track the suspect back to a nearby business which he attended “over the lunch hours.”
A source tells CTV News that police were then able to determine that the suspect had withdrawn money from a bank machine at that business, providing investigators with a means to learn his identity.
Pinfold said that police also received tips from members of the public who recognized him from surveillance camera images that were released on Sept. 18. Those images, which were widely circulated in the media, showed a suspect wearing a pink dress shirt and dress pants.
“This is a great example of the community and the police working together to find someone, to locate someone and ultimately to hold them responsible,” Pinfold said.
Suspect worked as lawyer at Toronto firm
The suspect worked at De Bousquet Barristers and Solicitors, according to a biography posted to the firm's website and confirmed by police as belonging to the suspect. The lawyer’s bio was no longer accessible on the site Thursday afternoon.
The firm told CTV News that the suspect worked for them on a contract basis for only a few weeks and that his contract ended in July.
According to the biography, the suspect worked as an external legal counsel. The biography said that the suspect did commercial litigation work previously and was employed as an adjunct professor of law in Seoul, South Korea at some point. The biography also said that the suspect spent five years with the Federal Court of Appeal in Ottawa after graduating from the University of Ottawa.
Francois LeSieur, 32, was arrested on Sept. 25 and charged with four counts of sexual assault.
Police say that LeSieur was not known to them prior to his arrest.
