A man who moved to Florida from Kentucky in June and was arrested for a brutal attack Aug. 24 on a woman in Manatee County also allegedly failed to register as a sex offender in violation of the state’s 48-hour registration rule.
Peter Fossett, 36, was arrested by the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office in connection with an alleged kidnapping, aggravated assault and sexual battery of a woman Aug. 22 while on a drive around the county that included a visit to Holmes Beach.
Holmes Beach Police Officer Mike Walker was patrolling near the Manatee Public Beach, 4000 Gulf Drive, at 3 a.m. Aug. 22 and observed two unattended vehicles in the parking lot, according to HBPD Detective Sgt. Brian Hall.
Walker ran the vehicle tags and checked the beach for people who might have left the vehicles in the closed lot and, six minutes later, returned to find only one car, which was ticketed, Hall said.
The detective confirmed the car that departed was registered to the victim.
According to an MCSO probable cause report derived from the woman’s account, they left the beach with the victim driving. They stopped a short distance from the beach at the CVS parking lot, 611 Manatee Ave., Holmes Beach, where Fossett allegedly began pummeling her head, face and neck with his fist, breaking her eye socket and neck.
Fossett allegedly forced his way into the driver’s seat, forced the woman into the passenger seat and demanded intercourse as he drove the vehicle from Holmes Beach to the mainland.
The woman’s injuries were later diagnosed at Venice Regional Bayfront Health in Venice, according to the report.
MCSO arrested Fossett Aug. 24 at a Bradenton address and booked him at the Manatee County jail.
Fossett had allegedly moved from Kentucky to Palmetto June 1, and then Bradenton, failing to register as a sex offender in Florida.
Fossett was re-arrested in jail upon MCSO determining he was a registered sexual offender since 2005, initially from Ohio, according to a probable cause affidavit from the MCSO.
According to a March 2, 2004, Cincinnati Enquirer article, Fossett, then from Foster, Kentucky, was arrested in 2004 in Mount Healthy, Ohio, for soliciting a sexual encounter with a 15-year-old girl he’d met on the Internet. The article stated school officials caught Fossett talking to the teen in a chat room and alerted authorities.
On Sept. 4, Fossett was being held in jail on a $300,000 bond for the Manatee County kidnapping, assault and battery charges and a $5,000 bond for the failure to register as a sex offender.
A Sept. 25 court date is set for Fossett at the Manatee County Judicial Center, 1051 Manatee Ave. W., Bradenton.