Girl Swimming in Lazy River at Florida Resort Alleges Man, 72, Groped and “Tickled Her" Underwater: Police

A 72-year-old Rhode Island man is facing criminal charges after being accused of touching children in a lazy river at a Florida hotel near the Walt Disney World resort.

William Francis Chatel was arrested Tuesday, March 11, and charged with lewd or lascivious molestation of a victim under 12 years of age, according to online court records. 

Two days prior, on Sunday, March 9, a young girl was swimming in the lazy river at the Club Wyndham Bonnet Creek Resort in Orlando when she said she “felt something touch” her and when she looked down, she saw an elderly man who had touched her lower back and right side, according to an Orange County Sheriff’s Office arrest affidavit obtained by PEOPLE.

The girl, whose identity and age were redacted in the affidavit, said she tried to avoid him for the rest of the time she was in the lazy river.

The next day, on Monday, March 10, the girl said she saw the same man in the lazy river and tried to avoid him, but he would “slow down” and “float towards” her, according to the affidavit. 

Shortly after, she ran over to her mother “in tears and hysterical,” saying the man allegedly “grabbed” her “buttocks and squeezed it and tickled it while underwater,” according to the affidavit.

The girl’s mother called the sheriff’s office and asked someone to watch the man until law enforcement arrived.

While waiting for police to arrive, someone recorded video allegedly showing the man “approach young female children in the lazy river, mostly while alone,” and appear “to swim up to them and reach/paddle underwater toward the children,” according to the affidavit.

Someone else allegedly saw the man touch another young female, according to the affidavit.

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When deputies arrived at the resort, they saw Chatel sitting in the hot tub. A deputy spoke to him as he left the hot tub and was returning to his room. He was taken into custody without incident.

He is being held without bond in the Orange County jail as he awaits his next court date on March 18.

His public defender did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.