BERKELEY — A picture taken by an alleged victim helped lead to a 44-year-old notary public being arrested and charged in the suspected sexual batteries and assaults of two girls and three women in three cities over a two-month period this year, according to authorities and court documents.
The victims, who were attacked in Berkeley, Albany and Oakland, range in age from 9 to 63. Authorities said the suspect did not know any of them.
The suspect, Tommy Giles Jr., who in jail records lists his occupation as notary public, was arrested May 26 in Berkeley.
According to court documents, he has admitted his involvement in the suspected attacks. He has also been linked to some of them through DNA and clothing he wore that police recovered, authorities said.
He has been charged with eight felony counts of forcible oral copulation, assault with intent to commit a sex crime, sexual battery by restraint, kidnapping to commit a sex crime, forcible oral copulation on a child under 14, a forcible lewd act upon a child under 14, and lewd acts on a child by someone at least 10 years older. He is also charged with misdemeanor counts of indecent exposure and sexual battery.
According to authorities and court documents, the suspected spree began March 30 in Albany. A 9-year-old girl said she was sexually assaulted between 8 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. by a man who confronted the victim as she walked to school and claimed to have a knife.
On April 14, a 23-year-old woman was kidnapped and sexually assaulted about 1 p.m. near the 500 block of Colusa Avenue in Berkeley by a man who used threats of a knife, police said. The woman was forced to orally copulate the man, police said.
On April 29 between 9:20 a.m. and 9:40 a.m., a 23-year-old woman walking in the 400 block of 51st Street in Oakland was kidnapped by a man who claimed to have a knife. The victim was then sexually battered and forced to orally copulate the suspect.
In the case that helped lead to Giles’ identification and arrest, around 12:30 p.m. May 21, a 60-year-old woman was sexually battered by a man in the area of Stannage Avenue and Cedar Street in northwest Berkeley. That victim took photographs of the man’s back as he fled and posted them to a neighborhood website, attracting the attention of Berkeley residents. One of the people who viewed the photos identified Giles as the suspect to police on May 23.
On the morning of May 24, a 14-year-old girl was sexually assaulted in Albany by a man claiming to have a knife as she was walking to school. Giles was arrested two days later, on May 26.
Although Giles has been charged, Berkeley police said they encouraged any additional potential victims to contact the department’s Sex Crimes Unit at 510-981-5735 or their respective police agency in the city in which the crime occurred if they have a crime that has not been reported to police involving this same suspect.