67-year-old serial subway groper who terrorized women commuters is nabbed after he reached up transport officer's dress
A 67-year-old serial pervert was arrested after he reached up a female commuter's dress and touched and groped an off-duty traffic officer's genitals in a crowded train shortly before 9 am on Wednesday, and fled when the Manhattan-bound train pulled in to the next station. The Brooklyn man has reportedly been molesting women on trains since at least 1970 and as of 2012, has been arrested 169 times on various accounts.
New York police took him into custody Friday morning over the incident. Despite the trauma, the 37-year-old woman managed to click a picture of the perpetrator on her cell phone and took it to the officials. The cops identified him as Gian Verdelli, a convicted pervert with a history of groping women. NewJersey.com reveals that he has been charged with engaging in criminal sexual contact with two women on PATH trains in the recent weeks.
We’re asking for your help finding 67 year-old Gian Verdelli, who is wanted for sexual abuse after assaulting a woman on the subway yesterday- If you have any information, including info about his whereabouts or about this or other crimes, please ☎️ @NYPDTips at 800-577-TIPS pic.twitter.com/bhgvy9abQy
— NYPD Transit (@NYPDTransit) June 27, 2019
Port Authority spokeswoman Jackie Yodashkin said that it was the woman's quick thinking that helped the officials nab the registered sex offender so quickly. Yodashkin reveals that the man was wearing the same clothing when Port Authority plainclothes officers detained him as he attempted to board a PATH train at Grove Street. “The suspect gave a video statement to police stating ‘It could have been me,’” Yodashkin said.
When he was arrested on Friday, Verdelli was charged with two counts of criminal sexual contact, a fourth-degree offense that carries up to 18 months in prison on each charge. He was also charged with possession of marijuana under 50 grams and possession of drug paraphernalia, officials said.
The Brooklyn man has been out on parole since May 1, after serving nine months in jail for sexually abusing a commuter on a subway train in August 2017. He was also arrested in 2012 for molesting two women on board a Manhattan-bound PATH train and was charged with two counts of criminal sexual contact. The year before that, Verdelli was convicted of forcibly touching a woman in the city and was sentenced to 200 days in a local prison for the same.