Prowler Charged with Lurking Outside of Women's Apartments

early today  a Mercer County man with prowling outside the windows of Moon Township apartments to watch women undress inside. 

Brian R. Williams, 36, of Greenville, is charged with seven counts of invasion of privacy, defiant trespass and loitering and prowling at night. 

Police said they found Williams loitering on the evening of March 26 outside the window of a woman's apartment at the Waterford Landing complex. They said he gave a statement admitting that he repeatedly traveled to Moon Township to look in windows and observe women in various states of undress. 

Williams told police that he watched women ages 19 to 31 for "the purpose of sexual gratification" and sometimes masturbated while watching the women from outside their windows, according to a police report. Moon Police Chief Leo McCarthy said Williams was carrying personal lubricant in his pocket when police arrested him this week outside the apartment complex. 

Police said Williams targeted both Waterford Landing off Brodhead Road and the apartments off Beaver Grade Road. Police had installed surveillance cameras outside Waterford Landing apartments after more than two years of complaints about a peeping tom in the area. 

Several women at the apartment complexes have reported spotting a man standing outside their apartment window as they were changing their clothes at night or finding footprints outside of their apartments. Others had no idea that they were being observed while they were nude or changing clothes, police said. 

Greenville Police Sgt. Paul Molton said Williams was not under investigation in Greenville and that the department has had no recent similar complaints related to nighttime prowling. 

It is unclear why Williams targeted Moon Township apartment complexes. A date for a preliminary hearing in Coraopolis District Court has not been set.