VICTORIA -- A Victoria man is facing five counts of sexual assault which are alleged to have taken place at a local tattoo parlour.

Victoria police say David Samuel Hadden, 36, has been arrested for multiple reports of sexualized violence during tattoo appointments.

VicPD’s investigation first began in July after multiple women shared allegations of sexual assault from Hadden on social media.

The online allegations prompted one victim, who had reported a sexual assault to VicPD but did not file charges at the time, to come forward again and renew her case.

“After learning of social media reports about continued sexualized violence during tattoo appointments with the same man, the woman followed up and SVU (Special Victims Unit) detectives took additional investigative steps,” said VicPD in a release Thursday.

Hadden was arrested by police on Wednesday and has appeared in court. He has since been released from police custody with a future court date. His release came with conditions, including a ban on offering any tattoo services to women.

Police say they have identified several victims of sexual assault, which all occurred at Carne Tattoo, the business where the initial report was filed.

In July, Carne Tattoo took to social media saying that they were shocked about the allegations made about Hadden and that they had fired him from the business.

Later, the business clarified that it was aware of the initial allegation but thought that the situation had been resolved, as they had been in contact with the victim who did not decide to pursue charges with police.

"In March of 2019, we received an email from a customer alleging that the now terminated member of our staff had sexually assaulted her while working on her tattoo," said Carne Tattoo in a statement to CFAX 1070 on July 8.

"At the time, we worked closely with the survivor to determine a path forward. It was our understanding that the situation had been resolved to the satisfaction of the survivor,” the statement read.

“In retrospect, we should have terminated this employee immediately as this disgusting behaviour has no home in our industry or our shop and our failure to immediately act upheld a system that protects aggressors and continues the cycle of victimization. This situation and the decisions that followed were made by the shop’s management. Our other artists were not aware of the situation that occurred.”

“Up until this past weekend, we were not aware of any similar incidents perpetrated by this member of our staff; however, it is now clear that this employee’s actions were not a one-off, but rather a piece of a disturbing pattern. When we were made aware of other alleged assaults on social media, we moved quickly to terminate the employment of the artist,” said Carne.

The full statement can be read here.

At the time, Victoria police told the victim that their file would remain open should they decide to press charges in the future, which she did when the investigation restarted in July.

“We want everyone who has experienced sexualized violence to know that if you report what you’ve experienced to our SVU detectives, you will be listened to and you will be treated with respect,” said VicPD Thursday.

“Also know that support is always available through the Victoria Sexual Assault Centre, the Men’s Trauma Centre, an emergency room, your family doctor, a counsellor and many other means.”

A list of support centres and resources can be found on VicPD’s website here.

With files from CFAX 1070