Suspect released in sleepwatching case

A man who was arrested after a Halifax woman awoke to find a stranger in her home has been released without charges.

Police arrested the man in a park in the city's south end on Thursday morning, less than an hour after a womandiscovered an intruder in her South Street apartment.

Const. Brian Palmeter, spokesman for Halifax Regional Police, said the man matched the description of the suspect.

"And given the time of day, there wouldn't have been that many people in the area, so police had reasonable and probable grounds to arrest him," Palmeter said.

"Investigators spoke with him. But at the end of the day, we still have to have enough evidence to lay charges and at this point we don't."

The man was released from police custodyon Friday morning.

Palmeter said investigators are waiting formore forensic evidence to come back from the police laboratory.

This was the latest sleepwatching incident in the city's south end. In the past few years, several women in the area reported waking up to find a stranger watching or touching them.

Police said the woman in this case wasn't touched. She told investigators the intruder fled when she confronted him shortly after 5 a.m.

Police said a witness directed them to a park several blocks away, where they arrested the man.

Investigators were looking for links between this case andsimilar incidents.