Published: Wednesday, 10th March, 2010 9:48am

Child supermarket attacks are linked

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THE two alarming attacks on children - which took place in Dumbarton's ASDA customer toilets recently - are linked, the Reporter understands.

The incidents both took place on Sunday afternoons just a few weeks apart.

In the most recent, a 12-year-old boy was the victim of an alleged indecent assault in the male toilets in the supermarket on February 21.

Four weeks earlier, on January 24, at around 3.30pm, a five-year-old boy was allegedly punched in the face in the same toilet, and apparently by the same man, but the victim in this incident was not indecently assaulted.

Police have examined CCTV footage from the store taken on both days and have appealed for information from the public.

At the time of the first incident the suspect was described as being a white man who is around 5ft 6ins tall with short dark hair.

Mark Allan, Dumbarton ASDA store manager, spoke to reassure customers everything was being done to help police catch the person responsible.

He said: "Like all major supermarkets we have an intricate CCTV system and we invest a lot of money on security to protect our colleagues and customers in the store.

"We have supported police right from square one.

"It is particularly concerning - I am a father-of-two and I shop in large supermarkets close to where I live and it is concerning.

"However, what I would say, you don't want it under your own roof, that is why we have been very supportive in helping the police in any way we can."

A police spokesman said: "We are following a positive line of enquiry."