There is anger and grief in sections of St Ann after the abduction and rape of a four-year-old girl in the parish last Friday night, allegedly by a 53-year-old man.

The man, a farmer from Dunnsville in the parish, remains in custody and, according to the police, is expected to be charged.

Investigators had been tight-lipped about it until a senior member of the Jamaica Constabulary Force spoke with the press yesterday.

Reports are that the four-year-old girl was snatched in Ocho Rios and was later spotted walking naked along the Dunnsville main road by a motorist.

According to Inspector Howard Simmonds of the Ocho Rios police, 30-year-old Suzie McKoy of Old Buckfield left the little girl and a two-month-old infant with a male family friend and went to the Ocho Rios market.

When she returned some 45 minutes later, the child could not be found. A search was launched and a report made to the Ocho Rios police.

The police suspect that after the mother left, more attention was being paid to the two-month-old baby and the four-year-old took the opportunity to wander off in search of her mother.

Wandering naked

Later that night, the Ocho Rios police received a call that the girl was found wandering naked.

The police responded and took the child to the St Ann's Bay Hospital.

The mother later identified the girl as her missing child.

Preliminary examination revealed that the child was sexually molested. She remains in hospital under observation.

The police said bruises on the child's body were not consistent with a beating, as some persons suggested, but seemed to have been inflicted during the assault.

Simmonds told The Gleaner that the suspect was picked up after the police received information that the child was seen with him that night.

Meanwhile, a female resident of Dunnsville, while expressing anger at the incident, insisted the accused was not from Dunnsville but only recently moved to the area.

She said the man usually frequents Cornhouse district, near Dunnsville, and is suspected to be a drug addict.

Persons who frequent the Ocho Rios market have also reported that the accused was sometimes seen at the back of the market in a drunken state.

Constable Adrianna Davis of the St Ann's Bay Centre for the the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse is leading the investigations.