Man Charged With Masturbating Toward Girl at St. Cloud Library

ST. CLOUD -- A St. Cloud man is accused of looking at a child while masturbating at the St. Cloud Public Library Monday evening.

Fifty-four-year-old Shawn Hanrahan is charged with a gross misdemeanor count of 5th-degree criminal sexual conduct - lewd exhibition with someone under 16.

According to the criminal complaint, a woman told police that she was at the library with her daughter at about 8:30 p.m. when she heard a noise like coins or keys jingling. That's when she saw Hanrahan looking directly at her daughter and was groping himself through his jeans.

The girl told investigators Hanrahan was aggressively rubbing his crotch and stared directly into her eyes.

The mother confronted Hanrahan who then walked away.

Hanrahan was arrested at the scene and booked into the Stearns County Jail.

Library spokeswoman Abby Faulkner released a statement about this incident Thursday, saying the "library staff actually spotted this incident happening in real time and reacted by intervening and calling the police. Without their quick thinking, the victims might not have ever had law enforcement involvement. Additionally, we've trespassed him for one year. He's not an unknown quantity here, but he's never done anything like this before. We don't want people to think that we don't take care of these things. We do. We take them very seriously."