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Rapist who terrified Frankford last summer pleads guilty

A 27-year-old man who terrorized the Frankford neighborhood last summer in a string of gunpoint sexual attacks on women pleaded guilty yesterday to rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, aggravated assault, robbery and a host of other charges.

A 27-year-old man who terrorized the Frankford neighborhood last summer in a string of gunpoint sexual attacks on women pleaded guilty yesterday to rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, aggravated assault, robbery and a host of other charges.

Dorrell Shaw, a tall man with short, curly hair, bowed his head and clasped his hands in front of him as he softly voiced one "guilty" plea after another as his mother wept in court.

Shaw faced trial yesterday on charges of assaulting three women, including a 16-year-old girl. Instead, he pleaded guilty to raping the teen and another female and to involuntary deviate sexual intercourse in all three cases.

When residents in Frankford learned the attacker lived among them, they sat on their porches clutching knives and cans of Mace.

Shaw, of Marlowe Street near Pratt in East Frankford, is to be sentenced Oct. 16 by Common Pleas Judge Glenn Bronson.

In reading a summary of facts in the cases, Assistant District Attorney Mark Cipolletti said that:

On Aug. 12, Shaw accosted a woman on Wakeling Street near Frankford Avenue, pointed a gun at her stomach, grabbed her phone and $20, then pushed her into her SUV, where he forced her to perform oral sex on him and then fled.

DNA from the semen was later determined to match Shaw's DNA.

This woman, now 22, shed tears of relief in court yesterday. Afterward, she said that not having to testify at a trial "took a lot of stress" out of her life. Having Shaw admit his crimes was "the sweetest thing to hear."

She said that during the assault she kept thinking she needed to make sure she got evidence on him. "I'm not letting it take over my life," she said.

In the second case, on Aug. 14, Shaw grabbed a 16-year-old girl from behind with a gun after she got off the El at the Margaret-Orthodox station. He pushed her toward a secluded area and forced her to perform oral sex and also raped her, Cipolletti said.

Then, on Aug. 16, Shaw entered a home on Dyre Street near Frankford Avenue through a first-floor window and assaulted a 37-year-old woman, who was in bed.

He grabbed her by her neck, showed her a gun, and forced her to perform oral sex on him, then raped her, Cipolletti said. He then took her cell phone, and fled.

Shaw pleaded guilty to rape in the Aug. 14 and Aug. 16 cases.

Bronson told Shaw he faces a mandatory-minimum sentence of five to 10 years in prison.

If these convictions are determined to be a second strike - that is, if he had a prior conviction for a violent crime - Shaw would then face a mandatory-minimum sentence of 10 to 20 years .

Shaw was initially described as a "person of interest" in a string of six terrifying attacks in Frankford, including these three.

In two of the cases, police determined that he was not involved.

In the remaining case, Shaw was charged with aggravated assault and related offenses.

On Aug. 18, he allegedly grabbed a woman near a bus terminal.

After she showed him a box cutter, he ran, Cipolletti said.

Charges were withdrawn after the woman failed to appear in court for a preliminary hearing, and detectives were later unable to find her. *