CREEP MUST BE STOPPED
IT is not drawing too long a bow to compare incidents involving the Varsity Lakes creep to the horrific attacks perpetrated by a man, now in jail, who was dubbed the “bikeway rapist’’.
Three incidents at Varsity Lakes have police worried.
In the most recent – last weekend – a woman jogging along a popular bushland path at Varsity Lakes encountered a man who was masturbating. Police now say he was probably a teenager. What is of concern is the fact he chased the woman.
In a previous incident another woman was grabbed around the wrist by an assailant, who tried to drag her into bushes.
Police have to find this person. His behaviour is bold and aggressive.
Boosting security in such a beautiful area might be annoying, but local councillor Hermann Vorster has little choice but to ensure commitments to improving safety by having unwanted vegetation cleared and cameras installed are put into best effect by the council.
In 2009 a Brisbane man was jailed for 25 years for attacking and raping 11 women along some of that city’s most popular jogging and bicycle tracks.
But in at least one incident – and there were many, because he did not always attack the women he stalked – Luke James Colless strayed from his Brisbane hunting grounds and came to the Gold Coast.
Colless singled out an 18-year-old woman at Burleigh Heads, attacking her from behind.
She was furious she had no chance to defend herself and told investigators she felt violated and disgusted, adding she now kept looking over her shoulder and was afraid to return to a place she had loved to go for exercise, to enjoy the surroundings and to meet her friends for a swim.
“I live in a state of constant fear. This crime has robbed me of my freedom,’’ she said in a statement.
Colless’s file showed he began stealing women’s underwear from clothes lines when he was 11. He grew increasingly voyeuristic in his teens, became obsessed with a jogger in 2005 and embarked on his 27-month reign of terror in 2006.
The Varsity Lakes creep might simply be an exhibitionist. But his illness might also be considerably worse. He has to be found and helped before someone is harmed.