Inset: William Francis Chatel. Background: Club Wyndham Bonnet Creek Resort in Orlando, Florida (Google Maps).
A 72-year-old Rhode Island man is accused of groping young girls while wading in a lazy river pool at a resort not far from Disney World in Florida.
The alleged incidents occurred on Sunday and Monday at the Club Wyndham Bonnet Creek Resort in Orlando. The Orange County Sheriff’s Office responded to the resort around 6:30 p.m. Monday for a call about an elderly man inappropriately touching people, a probable cause arrest affidavit obtained by Law&Crime said. The names and ages of the alleged victims were redacted from the document.
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The girl’s mother told cops that her daughter was swimming in the lazy river pool on Sunday when she felt something touch her lower back and right side. She realized it was an elderly male who had touched her, the affidavit said. The girl moved to the other side of the pool and avoided the man for the rest of the day. On Monday, she was back in the pool when she saw the same man, cops wrote. She tried to stay away from the man, but he kept floating toward her, according to the affidavit. The man allegedly came up to her and grabbed her “buttocks and squeezed it and tickled it while under water.”
She ran over to her mother “in tears and hysterical.” The girl explained what happened and pointed out the man. Her mother sent the girl back to their room while she took videos of the man and had her husband call cops. She saw a man possibly touch another young girl in the pool, the affidavit said. It appeared he would go up to girls who were alone in the pool and swim toward them and “reach/paddle underwater toward the children,” the affidavit said.
When deputies arrived, they spotted the man in the hot tub and confronted him when he got out and started walking toward his room. He was identified as William Francis Chatel. Cops wrote in the affidavit that Chatel was “cooperative” and he made a statement but it’s redacted from the report.
Deputies took a cheek swab of Chatel’s DNA and took the girl’s swimsuit into evidence. They also were looking into a possible second alleged incident involving another girl. Chatel was arrested on a charge of lewd or lascivious molestation. He remains at the Orange County Jail without bond. He has a court date scheduled for March 18.
Employees told cops they planned to ban Chatel from the resort and would have him arrested if he returned. Wyndham did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
