Serial groper banned from Metro

L.A. man has been convicted 10 times of sexually assaulting girls and women on buses and trains.

A 27-year-old Los Angeles man who has been convicted 10 times of sexually assaulting girls and women on buses and trains was ordered Tuesday to stay away from public transit and group ride-sharing services, to undergo a yearlong sex offender treatment program and to register as a sex offender, authorities said.

Ager Linder pleaded no contest in December to two counts of child molestation, three counts of sexual battery and one count of battery on a public transportation passenger.

The Los Angeles city attorney’s office said Linder groped eight girls and women between the ages of 15 and 27 while riding on Metro buses between May and August 2018.

Linder would pretend to be asleep and would then grab a victim, prosecutors said.

He was convicted on nine previous occasions for similar offenses, according to the city attorney’s office.

Linder pleaded no contest to two counts of sexual battery and two counts of battery in January 2018 after groping three women and a 16-year-old girl on the Metro Red Line between July and December 2017.

Linder’s earlier convictions for groping women on public transportation occurred in North Hollywood, Hollywood, Mid-City, Culver City, Norwalk, West Los Angeles and Long Beach, according to the city attorney’s office.

He was given 54 months of probation and ordered to stay away from all forms of public transportation, including subway and bus stops.

He also was ordered to stay away from any rideshare vehicle where there are other passengers, such as Uber Pool or Lyft shared rides, the city attorney’s office said.