Leon Wasser no stranger to the courtroom

BAHAR NASIRZADEH//EXCALIBUR ARCHIVES

A former York administrator with a spotty past has been arrested for allegedly attempting to abduct an eight-year-old girl.
     Toronto police say that a man approached the girl, who was with her grandmother inside a local Price Chopper grocery store near Jane St. and Sheppard Ave., on Sept. 15.
According to police, the family did not know the suspect, but he made friendly conversation with them while inside the Price Chopper.
     Later that evening, the suspect allegedly followed the pair home to their apartment building on Chalkfarm Dr.
    “He did chat them up, and he followed them from Price Chopper walking towards the apartment,” said Det. Const. Michelle Bond of Toronto Police Services.
    “Eventually, he went back to Price Chopper and got his car, and, yes, he did go to the victim’s home,” she added.
    Police said the man knocked on the door of the apartment and then got into an altercation with the girl’s family members, before he was chased away by one of her cousins.
“He ended up entering the building and going right up to her apartment building door [ . . . ] but he had no chance to do anything because the victim’s family was there,” said Bond.
Witnesses claim that the man jumped into a four-door sedan during his getaway, and his car allegedly made contact with a minivan.
   “That has not been confirmed because nobody has come forward, and the van that people saw on television is one that they thought that he had [hit],” said Bond.
    "He did bump into something, but nobody has come forward or reported any damage to their vehicle.” Bond said she believes that the reason the eight-year-old was targeted
was her young age and the fact that she was accompanied by a disabled adult.
     Leon Wasser, 51, has been charged with three counts of criminal harassment, including two for following and communicating with the victim, and one for attempting to commit an indictable offence.
    In 2007, Wasser was convicted for having sex with a 15-year-old, underaged prostitute.
    His defence claimed that he had called an adult chat line and met with the teenager under the impression that she was, in fact, 18 years old.
    Wasser was also previously acquitted of six other offences, including sexual assault and attempted child molestation. York University director of media relations Alex Bilyk confirmed that Wasser was a full-time employee at York, working as the director of commercial facilities from 1986 until his termination in May 2005. Wasser also graduated York with an MBA in public policy and entrepreneurship.
   Bond said a bail hearing for Wasser is expected to take place on Sept. 29 and that he will be held in police custody until the hearing.

- With files from CTV and the Toronto Star