Police released a sketch Wednesday of a man sought in connection with the sexual assault of a 7-year-old boy in a Manhattan Beach park restroom last Friday.
The attacker was described as a white man in his 40s, about 5 feet 8 inches tall. He has short, mostly gray hair, tan skin and a heavy stomach, the Manhattan Beach Police Department said in a news release.
On April 18, a man forced the boy into a bathroom stall at Polliwog Park (map) and sexually assaulted him, police said. The man was wearing dark-colored pants and a plain white T-shirt.
The attack marked the city's first reported sexual assault of the year, police said.
On Tuesday, police said a 14-year-old boy who had come forward as a victim of a similar sexual assault days earlier in nearby Hermosa Beach had lied about the attack.
Police said the boy claimed he was assaulted in a bathroom at Valley Park on April 15 by a man who appeared to be in his 30s.
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Investigators determined that the boy had made up the story, but the development had no bearing on the Manhattan Beach sexual assault investigation.
Anyone with information on the Manhattan Beach incident was asked to contact Det. Traci Navarrette at 310-802-5125.
The development in the case came on the same day that the California Supreme Court declined to review a lower court's ruling striking down strict sex offender restrictions in Orange County.
The move means that local bans in dozens of California communities are trumped by state law as the 4th District Court of Appeal found in January.
Orange County's restrictions passed in 2011 barred offenders from parks and beaches unless they got written permission from the sheriff.
But in 2012, a county court overturned the conviction of a sex offender for going to a company picnic at a Fountain Valley park and asked the appeals court to rule on the case and the legality of the regulations.
Orange County's district attorney encouraged other localities to pass similar measures.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
