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A foot fetishist accused of accosting more than a dozen young women handed himself in to Belgian police following a wanted notice broadcast on television, prosecutors said Thursday.
The 47-year-old Frenchman reported to police in the northern city of Ghent weeks after broadcaster VTM carried an item in September on his activities.
The man had been the subject of 19 complaints since 2006 from students who said he would follow them back to their apartments and ask them to take off their footwear, the Belga news agency reported.
A spokeswoman for the Ghent prosecutors’ office said he would never engage in any violence.
The Belga news agency said that on one occasion, in October, he was caught by CCTV after removing his mask just as he followed one student into a block of flats.
The man, from the northern French city of Lille, recognised the incidents and said he wanted to be treated for this form of sexual addiction — podophilia.
He was released after questioning on condition he would have treatment and provide evidence of doing so.