Toronto police have charged a York University instructor with sexual assault after a viral social media post accused him of groping a sleeping woman on a TTC subway train.

In a news release Friday, police allege the man sexually assaulted two women while they were seated on a train, once on Jan. 3 and again on Jan. 16.

Police said two women and a witness contacted police after seeing a social media post. The post, initially published on Instagram and then shared widely on other platforms, was written by someone who claimed to have been approached by the victim of one of the alleged sexual assaults shortly after the incident occurred.

According to the post, a young woman was seated next to a man around 10 a.m. on Jan. 16 when she alleges that she was groped.

The man allegedly “took off his jacket, put it on his lap, with his bag over it (...) and put his hands through it and started to feel up the side of her breast,” the post reads.

The post prompted a petition on change.org claiming the man seen in the social media post was an instructor at York University and called for his removal.

In a statement, York University said it was aware of a sexual assault investigation involving one of its part-time instructors.

The university said the man has not taught on campus since Jan. 20.

On Thursday, police arrested Nicolae Stefan Pop, 51, of Toronto. He is charged with two counts of sexual assault.

He is scheduled to appear in court on March 19.

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