Police seek suspect in voyeurism incidents

He peers through the window, wearing a tuque and holding a grey-coloured cellphone up to film. When spotted, he flees into the night.

Police are looking for a suspect in a string of voyeurism incidents in Edmonton’s McKernan neighbourhood, just south of the University of Alberta.

The same man has been spotted looking into women’s bedroom windows on seven different occasions since January 2017.

Most happened between 9:30 p.m. and midnight. In a news release, police said each woman was startled by a man peering through her bedroom window, filming them on a cellphone while they were undressing.

All of the women are young adults. The first incident happened in January 2017. The most recent was on Aug. 9.

Police released a composite sketch of the man Thursday, describing him as being 20 to 30 years of age. He is between fivefoot-nine and six-foot-one, around 170 pounds with dark shoulderlength hair.

Police said residents in the area should be vigilant and keep an eye on their properties, especially after the sun goes down.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Edmonton police or Crime Stoppers.

Roberta Franchuk, president of the McKernan Community League, called news of the serial voyeur “disturbing,” but said she hadn’t heard about the case before Thursday.

“It wasn’t widely spread around,” she said. “It is disturbing — we don’t like to think about behaviour like that happening to people. I’m happy the police are looking into it seriously and releasing information about it.”