Sex offender identified by photo charged with rape

Boston police arrested a registered sex offender and charged him with rape yesterday, hours after a woman who walked into a district station to report she had been assaulted identified the man in a photo on a bulletin board, officials said.

Raymond Diamond, 43, is scheduled to be arraigned today in Dorchester District Court on charges of aggravated rape, resisting arrest, failing to stop for police, driving to endanger, operating a motor vehicle without a license, and using a motor vehicle without authority, police said.

Deputy Superintendent Margot Hill described Diamond as ''the worst of the worst" of sexual offenders. He is a Level 3 offender, the most serious. According to the state sex offender registry board website, Diamond was convicted of assault with intent to commit rape in 1975 and again in 1980. He was convicted of rape in 1989.

Diamond registered his Dorchester address with the state earlier this year, after he was arrested for failing to do so, Hill said.

The woman said that earlier yesterday, Diamond had identified himself as an old family friend and offered her a ride. Police said she was raped at knifepoint and stabbed in the leg as she escaped from the car. It is Globe policy not to identify victims of alleged sexual assaults.

Police said the woman walked into the District B-3 station to report the assault at about 6:40 a.m. As she waited for police, she noticed the picture and began screaming and pointing, Hill said.

''That is the man that raped me," the woman said, according to Hill. The woman also provided a description of his car, a Lincoln, Hill said.

At about 10 a.m., officers spotted the vehicle, with another woman in the front passenger seat, near Blue Hill Avenue and Talbot Avenue, police said. The woman in the car at the time of the arrest had been robbed of $30, but was not assaulted, police said.

The officers followed the car for a brief time before the driver got out and ran, police said. Five plainclothes officers captured Diamond on Norfolk Street, hiding behind a house. The officers credited with the arrest were identified as Stephen Fabiano, Stephen Rioux, Thomas Griffiths, and John Puglia, under the direction of Sergeant Anthony Troy.

The Police Department believes ''that these officers . . . prevented an additional assault from occurring," Hill said.

Gina Scaramella, executive director of the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center, praised the arrest. ''Clearly, having images available for survivors to look for is great," said Scaramella, who called the episode dramatic.

But she said that 80 percent of rapes reported to her center involve people who know one another.

Scott Goldstein can be reached at sgoldstein@globe.com.