Jose L. Mercado-Jordan was arrested for sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl on several occasions from April 2001 to March 2002, Fairfax County Police say.
Police charged Mercado-Jordan, 56, of the 8300 block of Uxbridge Court in Springfield, with rape, sodomy and two counts of aggravated sexual battery.
The victim, now 12 years old, reported in May 2005 that Mercado-Jordan approached her at her school bus stop, according to police reports.
She reported that he had approached her at the bus stop on more than one occasion, said Officer Bud Walker, spokesperson for the Fairfax County Police Department.
From April 2001 to March 2002, Mercado-Johnson rented a room at a residence in the Annandale area where the girl lived, according to police reports. Mercado-Jordan sexually assaulted the 8-year-old at her residence on several occasions before moving out after March 2002, according to reports.
Mercado-Jordan is not related to the family, Walker said. Police are still investigating the case, he said.
<b>NEARLY 67 PERCENT</b> of all sexual assaults are against juveniles, with one-third committed against youth under 12 years old and one in seven committed against children under 6 years old, according to statistics posted on ChildSafeNet's Web site.
One out of every five girls and one out of every 10 boys is sexually assaulted before reaching adulthood, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. But fewer than 35 percent of such assaults are reported to authorities.
See www.childsafenet.org.