Brunswick police have identified a person of interest in the sexual assault of a Bowdoin College student who says she was raped in her campus apartment last month.
Stephen McIntire, 55, of Bath, is a known sex offender and was attending a sex offender support group meeting near the campus on the night of the alleged assault, according to police.
According to Brunswick police Cmdr. Mark Waltz, a student reported a strange man broke into her campus apartment on the night of Nov. 10 and raped her.
Police released a sketch of the suspect based on a witness description. Shortly after the sketch was released, a parole officer called to say it looked like one of his clients: a man who was attending a nearby support group at the First Parish Church that night.
Another student reported an attempted assault Nov. 17, which allegedly occurred while the student was walking near campus. Both the attempted assault and the sexual assault happened on Tuesdays, the day the sex offender support group had been meeting.
The First Parish Church has decided to terminate its agreement to host the sex offender support group.
"We are very sorry that it had to go that way," said First Parish Council member Ken Thorson, who said the group serves an important role in rehabilitating sex offenders in the community.
Maine
The latest news from around the state
The group, run by Needham, Massachusetts-based Counseling and Psychotherapy Center, had been meeting at the First Parish Church for two years.
Thorson said neither the church nor CPC has a legal obligation to notify the police of the sex offender meeting location.
Brunswick police do not know if the group will meet in a different location. A request for comment to CPC was not returned.
Investigators said they would like to question other members of the sex offender support group, but they have not been given a detailed list of the participants.
McIntire was arrested last week on an unrelated charge. Police in Bath, Maine say a woman discovered him inside of her house on his couch, exposing himself. She ran upstairs to her bedroom and locked the door, and she alleges that McIntire attempted to get inside her bedroom.
He faces burglary, criminal trespass, and incident conduct charges, among others, and is being held at the Two Bridges Regional Jail.
Brunswick Police have gone to the jail to question McIntire about the Bowdoin assault, but he is not cooperating.
