Transit police’s release of description of alleged sex assault victim causes outrage

A decision by Transit police to release a detailed description of the victim of an apparent sexual assault is causing outrage.

The force issued a public plea last week for a young woman to come forward, after a witness reported seeing a man grope her on the Canada Line.

The news release included her ethnicity, estimated age, hair colour, height and what she was wearing at the time — details that some women’s groups say should never have been published.

“The police are putting all these identifiers onto a woman who actually has a choice of whether she is going to step forward or not,” said Irene Tsep no poulos-Elhaimer, executive director of the Women Against Violence Against Women Rape Crisis Centre. “Women resist in many different ways. Women want to get on with their lives, if they’re going to be mired in a criminal justice system that has a (low) conviction rate.”

The witness, Kathy Yu, also posted a photo of the alleged assault — in which the suspect and victim’s faces were not visible — on a Facebook page where it has been shared more than 2,000 times.

Transit police spokeswoman Anne Drennan said the force would never circulate such a photo. But after the Facebook post was published, officers felt it was important to follow up.

“To put out a description is an indicator to both her and perhaps someone who might know who we’re talking about to say to her, perhaps she should go and talk to the police,” she said.

Yu followed the suspect off the train at Bridgeport Station in Richmond on Thursday morning.

She pointed him out to Transit police, who stopped him and asked for identification. But because the victim had not been identified, the person was allowed to go.

After the force’s public plea, a victim of a separate but similar assault on Friday morning on the Canada Line came forward.

A link has not been proven but officers continue to investigate, Drennan said.