SWAMPSCOTT — A 43-year-old Swampscott man was sent to Tewksbury State Hospital for a mental health evaluation Tuesday, following his arraignment in Lynn District Court, on charges of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 after he allegedly assaulted a young girl in a Starbucks at a mall on Paradise Road.
Swampscott police responded to the mall, which is located at 450 Paradise Road, after the young girl called the police to report the alleged assault from a Panera Bread across the street, said Detective Sergeant Jay Locke in a telephone interview Tuesday evening. The girl told police “a man walked up behind her and grabbed onto her butt and moved it up and down then rubbed up and down her lower back,” Locke said.
She was visibly shaken by the incident, Locke said, and officers observed her fidgeting and crying. After officers worked to calm her down, the girl was able to provide police with a photo of the man, who police identified as Fred Hyyoot.
Hyyoot is well-known to police, Locke said, and had been responsible for a number of other incidents in and around the area of the mall.
Officers later found Hyyoot in the area, and the victim identified him as the man allegedly responsible for her assault, Locke said.
Hyyoot is set to return to court June 27, state court records show.
Charlie McKenna can be reached at [email protected].
