NEIGHBOURS call him a menace, exposing himself and masturbating in public.

They say he does it at void decks, and even while sitting on tree branches outside their windows.

The man, who lives in a flat in Woodlands, is being investigated by the police. But he says he is innocent.

The problems started in 2006 say residents, soon after the man, believed to be South African, moved into the flat with his Singaporean wife.

One of them, Ms Susanna Sarita Revi, 40, made a police report after she could no longer take his lewd acts.

'Since 2006, I have seen him putting his hand in his pants and masturbating at the void decks of two blocks near where I live,' she said.

'On two occasions, I was at home and saw him sitting on rambutan trees in front of the block and doing the same thing in front of my window.

'Another time, I saw him exposing himself and masturbating at the staircase landing between the second and third storeys.'

The nurse said the man, whom she knew only as KC, is about 1.8m tall, well-built, dark, bald and usually wears T-shirts and jeans.

Ms Susanna, who works full-time at a nearby clinic and part-time at a 24-hour clinic farther away, said the man was usually up to his tricks in the early hours.

She claimed he sometimes followed her when she went downstairs to feed the cats near the block after work.

'In the early hours of 8 Jul, I was returning home after work when I saw him masturbating at the void deck of a block nearby. When I confronted him, he told me that, if this was Africa, he would kill me,' she claimed.

As she was afraid of him, Ms Susanna did not make any police report at first.

But on 3 Aug, she asked a member of the residents' committee for help and was advised to make a police report. She did so the next day.

Another resident living on the first storey of the block said the man followed her daughter home one night last year.

The woman, who did not want to be named, said her daughter, the eldest of her four children, was returning home late after work when she saw the man following her.

'She was frightened and walked quickly until she reached our unit. Fortunately, she was not harmed,' said the mother.

'When I told my husband, he went to talk to the man and decided not to pursue the matter further as our daughter was not harmed.'

Another first-storey resident, Mr Azmi Aziz, 38, said his niece was sleeping in her bedroom one night in June when she was woken by the sound of someone trying to get in through the window.

He said: 'She saw the same African man trying to get into her room and shouted out. The man fled.

'We did not make a police report as we did not want any trouble with him. But my niece has since moved to another bedroom.'

Bad encounter
Taxi driver Sani Abu Bakar, 50, said an Indonesian woman had an unpleasant encounter with the man last year.

He said: 'The woman, in her 20s, was selling keropok from door to door. When the man saw her, he seemed to want her keropok and asked her to go to his unit.

'When she reached there and knocked on the door, he opened it and was only wearing a towel. He allegedly took off the towel and exposed himself to her.'

Mr Sani said the woman ran upstairs and asked a resident to accompany her downstairs.

He said: 'The resident asked me if I could help the woman and I accompanied her downstairs. That was when she told me what the man did.'

Ms Susanna said she had tried in vain to get her neighbours to tell the police about their experiences.

The New Paper went to the man's unit on Wednesday afternoon but nobody was in.

Police spokesman Danny Tan confirmed that Ms Susanna had made a report and said they arrested a man in his 40s at 5pm on Tuesday at a unit in Block 109, Woodlands Street 13.

Investigations are on. He said the man has not been charged and has been released on bail.

On Wednesday evening, a man with an African accent called The New Paper, which had left a name card under his door, and said he was the man Ms Susanna was talking about.

The man, who claimed he was a foreigner and wanted to be known as Mr A K, denied her allegations and said he was not a criminal.

The man said police detained him on Tuesday for questioning about an incident.

He claimed Ms Susanna had harassed him and called him names and that he had made a police report against her, but this could not be verified at press time.