Shaw to face four sex assault charges

Dorrell Shaw will be charged with four of the six sexual assaults in Frankford this summer, police said yesterday, citing a "definitive DNA link" in one of the attacks and "other corroboration" in the three others.

Shaw, 26, a convicted burglar who lived blocks away from several of the attack sites, is in custody in Graterford Prison on a parole violation.

"He's not on the street," said Capt. John Darby of the Special Victims Unit, "so that threat has been removed."

Shaw will be formally arrested for the assaults and transported back to Philadelphia after the District Attorney's Office approves the charges.

The DNA connection stems from an attack at 5 a.m. last Saturday on the 1600 block of Dyre Street, when a woman was raped and robbed at gunpoint by an intruder who entered her home through a first-floor window, Darby said.

In the other attacks, police said they had "photo array identification and other corroboration."

On Monday, police released Shaw's name and picture as a "person of interest" in one of the assaults after two more women were assaulted within hours of one another. The next day, Shaw's attorney, Donald Chisholm, took his client to the police, where Shaw volunteered a DNA sample in hope of clearing his name.

Chisholm maintained yesterday that Shaw is not the Frankford rapist.

"At the end of the day, when all is said and done, he'll be exonerated," Chisholm said. "There's still some savage out on the street, and it is not Mr. Shaw."

Shaw, a father of three, has spent most of his adult life in jail. He has a long criminal history that includes convictions for burglary, assault and theft. He was close to finishing an eight-year sentence for burglary and assault when he was paroled June 24 to a supervised treatment facility in Philadelphia.

On July 12, he absconded and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

Police said Shaw is responsible for these sexual assaults:

On Aug. 12 at 6 a.m., on the 1600 block of Wakeling Street, a 21-year-old woman was robbed and sexually assaulted at gunpoint in the backseat of her car.

On Aug. 14 at 10 p.m., on the 4700 block of Darrah Street, a 16-year-old girl was robbed and raped in an alley as she walked home after exiting the Frankford El.

Last Saturday at 5 a.m., on the 1600 block of Dyre, a 37-year-old woman was raped and robbed at gunpoint in her home by an intruder.

On Monday at 12:30 a.m., an 18-year-old woman was grabbed and beaten as she fended off an attacker while walking home from the Bridge and Pratt bus terminal.

Police said the other two attacks, one from June 11 when Shaw was in prison and another on Monday, when a woman was attacked in a driveway at Frankford Avenue and Dyre, are still under investigation.