JOMO Jackson, a 27 year-old auto body repairman, has been arrested and charged with five counts of rape by the police.

Jackson, of Gordon Town, St Andrew, who was picked up by police in Gordon Town on October 10, is also facing five counts of abduction, one count of illegal possession of firearm and five counts of indecent assault.

He was remanded when he appeared in court on Wednesday, and will face the court again next Thursday.

Among the accused alleged victims was an 11 year-old from McAuley’s Primary School in St Catherine, who was reportedly raped in September. According to the Spanish Town police, the child was taken from the school by a man who entered the school compound purporting to be selling grapes.

Inspector Duetrass Foster-Gardener, the head of the Rape Unit of the Spanish Town police, told the Observer then that the rape of the 11 year-old was the third such incident involving children at McAuley’s Primary, located at Duncan’s Pen, a short walk from the Spanish Town Highway. The first, according to Foster-Gardener, was in January and the second in June.

Jackson, according to the police, has been allegedly linked to five rapes that occurred between September 4 and October 19 this year.

Detective Sergeant Barrington Green from the Centre for Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse, told the Observer yesterday that all five girls positively identified Jackson during an ID parade at the Constant Spring lock-up on November 18.

“Everybody’s description matched him perfectly, ‘his teeth look funny’, ‘blue jeans pants’, ‘short sleeve shirt’. Every one of them identified him on the parade and these are children who did not know each other,” said the sergeant.

He alleged that in nearly all the cases, his methods were the same. According to Green, the man went into schools with a black scandal bag, purporting to be selling grapes.

He said that while on the compound he would select his victim, “and tell the victim the teacher sent them for grapes from him. Then he would take them off the school compound and threaten them (saying) that he has a firearm. He would take them on a bus . to Bull Bay, there he would perform oral sex on them, cause them to perform oral sex on him, then sexually assault them,” Sergeant Green said.

After each ordeal the child was then put on a bus to find her way home.

His last alleged victim, an eight-year-old, said she was walking with her friend on the school premises when she saw Jackson sitting on the wall of the playingfield. He allegedly chased them and held onto one while the other escaped. Jackson allegedly threatened the child with a knife, forcing her off the school compound and into bushes beside an Adventist church where he committed the act. When it was over, he sent the girl away. She told a female adult what had happened. The adult took the child to the school’s principal who reported it to the police.

Meanwhile, the police said yesterday that 20 children have this year been abducted and raped by men in robot taxis.

“What some of these culprits are doing is to pick up other passengers who are their friends, and when the last (real) passenger leaves, they take the child and rape her,” said Sgt Green.

“We have seen a trend of it but what is beating us is we are not able to get a licence number to trace the cars,” he said.

Since January this year, 62 rapes involving children under age 15 were reported to the police.