Two men have been arrested in connection with separate sexual assaults on Metro Vancouver transit buses, police confirmed Thursday.
The first happened March 2 on a route 33 bus bound for UBC.
A witness saw a suspect grope the leg and thigh of another passenger, according to police. She told the bus driver, who in turn called Transit Police, but the suspect exited the bus in the 2100-block of Wesbrook Mall.
The witness also told police the same suspect had sexually assaulted her in a similar manner several weeks earlier on the bus route, but she was too scared to report it at the time.
She once again encountered the suspect on a route 33 bus on March 17, and this time, she called police, who intercepted the man and arrested him on scene.
The suspect, a 57-year-old Vancouver man not previously known to police, has since been released from custody and will appear in court in late April.
His release conditions include not setting foot on any Coast Mountain buses, SeaBus, SkyTrain or Canada Line trains.
Police said the victim of the assault is an international student from Japan who is returning home soon and has no plans to come back to Vancouver.
Because of that, Crown says it cannot approve charges against the suspect in that case, but the suspect is expected to be charged in the incident from weeks ago, in which the witness was groped.
His identity has not been released as the charge is still pending Crown approval.
The second arrest comes after a March 20 incident in which a woman on a train departing from Marine Drive SkyTrain Station had her buttocks cupped from behind.
The woman reportedly yelled at the suspect to back off and he exited the train, and she reported the assault to police.
Transit Police say investigators linked the suspect description to a “prolific offender” and arrested him at his Vancouver home on March 23.
Joseph Wai Hung Lui, 43, has since been released from custody on conditions that he also not set foot on Vancouver public transit.
He’ll next appear in a Vancouver courtroom April 14.
Police praised the victims in each case for coming forward.
