Peruvian police reportedly arrested a 42-year-old man last week who was dressed in a schoolgirl’s uniform and was hiding in the restroom at a girls’ school.
In a report translated from Spanish, news outlet Teletica reported the man’s disguise, complete “with braids and petticoat,” apparently allowed him to enter without being detected by guards at Colegio Rosa de América in the central Peruvian city of Huancayo.
In another translated report, Infobae reported the man’s alleged goal was to record girls in the restroom on his cellphone.
The suspect was identified in that report as Walter César Solís Calero.
Infobae said a school official encountered Solís Calero as he was leaving the girls’ restroom.
The official contacted parents as well as police, who arrested him.
News footage of the arrest shows a large squad of officers escorting a petite handcuffed figure with long brown braids, wearing a pink sweater and pink bucket hat over a blue plaid jumper.
The angry, shouting crowd — parents wanting to lynch the suspect, according to Infobae — knocked off the hat and appeared to try to lunge for the prisoner, whose face was largely hidden behind a black face mask.
If not for the caption (translated by Twitter) indicating it was an adult, the scene would have appeared to be a mob attacking a child.
?? | Hombre de 42 años vestido de escolar es sorprendido en el baño de alumnas en una escuela de mujeres en Huancayo. pic.twitter.com/zgjyQIRJse
— Alerta Mundial (@AlertaMundial2) April 20, 2023
The video showed authorities escorting the prisoner through the shouting crowd, head down and hands behind his back, to a police van.
He was loaded not into a passenger area but into the cargo compartment at the back of the vehicle, and driven away.
Only when photos were released of the person without the mask did it become more evident that the person in the schoolgirl’s uniform was an adult man.
?? | PERÚ: ¡Con trenzas y uniforme! Detienen a un hombre de 42 años vestido de mujer en baño de colegio de niñas en Huancayo. Según la policía, se aprovechaba para grabar a menores en los baños. pic.twitter.com/yr2c2Flt8n
— Alerta Mundial (@AlertaMundial2) April 20, 2023
The parents gathered outside the police station “demanding that justice be done and that the sexual perpetrator not be released,” according to the report.
Teletica reported investigators examined the suspect’s cellphone and “found photos of him in uniforms from other educational institutions.”
[firefly_poll]
“Parents fear that there are victims of a sexual assault committed by [the] man,” according to the report.
Teletica reported national police confirmed the suspect has “a police record for sexual harassment of minors.”
“[T]hey are even investigating whether he belongs to an international pedophilia network, since they found photos and videos on his cell phone,” the outlet reported.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.