An elderly man accused of groping a woman on a popular Southern California hiking trail may have violated other women, and police are on the hunt for more victims.
Riverside Police Department said that 77-year-old Toai Pham was arrested and faces charges of sexual battery, per a post on social media. Pham was booked into the Robert Presley Detention Center and later released on $5,000 bail.
The female hiker told police the man approached her in the early morning hours on Mount Rubidoux trail in Riverside on Monday March 9 and touched her inappropriately without her consent.
The woman was not injured and reported the incident immediately to cops, according to the Press Enterprise report.
During the investigation, cops discovered that Pham routinely hikes around the area in the morning hours and now police suspect Pham has done this before. “Detectives believe there may be additional victims who have not yet come forward,” Riverside police said in the post.
“If you have seen Toai Pham, or someone with a similar description approaching women around the area of Mt. Rubidoux, we encourage you to come forward.”
Commenters on the Riverside PD Facebook post noted that others have reportedly had similar experiences with Pham.
“People have been mentioning their encounters publicly on the Next Door app for a while,” one person wrote.
“It hasn’t happened to me. But I did read warnings there. Might be good to post this there as well and do a search there.”
“This needs to be posted to Mr Rubidoux as there have been multiple people advising specially women to be careful around Mr Pham as he has touched them inappropriately and without consent. I’ve seen like 5 different posts about it,” another person added.
While a third wrote, “I’m glad that this was reported and that he was taken into custody to vet the claims. If he is guilty, he needs to be held accountable…”
The Post reached out to the Riverside PD for further comment.
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