sws4420
08-20-2005, 08:28 AM
5-year-old victim was using men's room by himself
http://www.wnyt.com/Images/050819_crossgates.jpg
A little boy has been the victim of a sexual attack. Police say the child was molested inside a bathroom at Crossgates Mall.
Guilderland police say the abuse was committed Thursday afternoon after the boy 's mother let the 5-year-old go into a men's room by himself.
The mother told police she was at Crossgates with the boy, his sister and two other girls.
When the boy determined he needed to go to the bathroom, he did not want to go into the ladies room and convinced his mother to let him use the men's room near Houlihan's on the mall’s lower level.
The mother told police she was talking to the boy from outside the entrance. Apparently his stall had no toilet paper. He was heard asking for some. At that point a man who apparently had already been in the bathroom moved in. The mother's police report does not indicate she heard anything, but when the 5-year-old came out of the bathroom he told his mom that a man had wiggled his penis.
Mall security was able to locate the man they believe carried out the abuse of the boy. He's 48-year-old William Coleman III from Gilboa.
NewsChannel 13 has learned that Coleman has been charged with sex crimes several times previously in the 1980s.
Coleman is charged with sex abuse first degree and endangering the welfare of a child.
There are no family-use bathrooms in the common areas of the mall.
Crossgates General Manager Terry Walsh declined to discuss the situation. She wouldn't say whether any changes are being planned in the wake of the men's room attack.
http://www.wnyt.com/x4798.xml?ag=x156&sb=x183
http://www.wnyt.com/Images/050819_crossgates.jpg
A little boy has been the victim of a sexual attack. Police say the child was molested inside a bathroom at Crossgates Mall.
Guilderland police say the abuse was committed Thursday afternoon after the boy 's mother let the 5-year-old go into a men's room by himself.
The mother told police she was at Crossgates with the boy, his sister and two other girls.
When the boy determined he needed to go to the bathroom, he did not want to go into the ladies room and convinced his mother to let him use the men's room near Houlihan's on the mall’s lower level.
The mother told police she was talking to the boy from outside the entrance. Apparently his stall had no toilet paper. He was heard asking for some. At that point a man who apparently had already been in the bathroom moved in. The mother's police report does not indicate she heard anything, but when the 5-year-old came out of the bathroom he told his mom that a man had wiggled his penis.
Mall security was able to locate the man they believe carried out the abuse of the boy. He's 48-year-old William Coleman III from Gilboa.
NewsChannel 13 has learned that Coleman has been charged with sex crimes several times previously in the 1980s.
Coleman is charged with sex abuse first degree and endangering the welfare of a child.
There are no family-use bathrooms in the common areas of the mall.
Crossgates General Manager Terry Walsh declined to discuss the situation. She wouldn't say whether any changes are being planned in the wake of the men's room attack.
http://www.wnyt.com/x4798.xml?ag=x156&sb=x183