WASHINGTON
Thomson Reuters Foundation
By Elaine Porterfield
SEATTLE, July 22 (Reuters) – A registered sex offender has been jailed on suspicion of sexually assaulting a woman as she was in the midst of prayer during Sunday church services in Seattle, police said on Monday.
The suspect was subdued inside the sanctuary by several of the victim’s relatives, who restrained the man until police arrived on the scene of what officers called one of the most outrageous sexual assault cases they had ever encountered, Seattle Police spokeswoman detective Renee Witt said.
“We’ve all seen and heard some pretty bizarre and egregious things, but this … it just kind of blows your mind,” Witt said.
The 25-year-old victim was accosted while attending services with her family and boyfriend on Sunday morning at Saint Spiridon Russian Orthodox Cathedral, a church just north of downtown Seattle familiar for its blue, onion-shaped domes.
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