Last fall, a former Lancaster Bible College security guard was placed on 20 years' probation for sexually assaulting a teenage girl in a chapel restroom.

This week, police said, the same man, Joseph Simon Holt, was charged with grabbing and trying to handcuff a woman in a York County parking lot, allegedly telling police later that he wanted to kidnap and sexually assault her.

Holt, 20, who has been living at the York Rescue Mission, was charged by police Wednesday with attempted rape, attempted involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, attempted kidnapping, unlawful restraint, false imprisonment, attempted robbery of a motor vehicle, impersonating a public servant and possessing instruments of crime.

Shortly after 7 p.m. Wednesday, according to an account in the York Daily Record, Holt allegedly approached a 42-year-old woman in a Springettsbury Township store parking lot.

He identified himself as a policeman — even though he was wearing a black sweatsuit — and tried to handcuff the woman, investigators reportedly said.

The woman, screaming for help and trying to fight him off, was rescued by a 17-year-old boy who ran to intervene, according to the newspaper account. When the teen confronted the man, police said, Holt dropped the woman's car keys and fled on foot.

Police located Holt a short time later at a bus stop and took him into custody, where he allegedly confessed to investigators that he was having thoughts of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a woman.

Holt picked his victim at random as she walked out of the store, telling officers he liked the way she looked in her sweatsuit, township police Chief David Eshbach told the York Daily Record.

The victim, who had run back into the store to call police, later identified Holt as her assailant, Eshbach said.

Last October, Lancaster County Court Judge Paul K. Allison gave Holt 20 years' probation after he was convicted by a jury of attempted rape, indecent assault and two counts of indecent exposure for the Lancaster Bible College incident.

Jeff Conrad, the assistant district attorney who prosecuted the case, asked the judge to impose a state prison sentence such as the one recommended by the state Legislature.

Lancaster County District Attorney Donald Totaro said today society needs to be protected from sexually violent predators.

In Pennsylvania, the standard prison sentence recommended by the Legislature would have started with a minimum of three years in state prison.

Manheim Township Police said the local offenses occurred in August 2005 when Holt was working as a security guard while attending the college on Eden Road.

Two girls were attending a conference and needed to use a restroom. Holt, who was dressed in a security guard uniform, was locking the chapel but let the girls use the restrooms near the entrance.

While one of the girls was in a restroom, Holt hugged the other teenager as she was getting a drink from a water fountain. He forced that girl into one of the restrooms and ordered her friend to join her.

There, police said, Holt exposed himself and twice hugged one of the girls.

Holt, as part of his conviction here, was also ordered to register as a sex offender under Megan's Law.

Holt is currently in York County Prison in lieu of bail, pending a hearing on this week's charges. Lancaster County authorities also have reportedly filed detainers against the man.

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