A man accused of burying a 12-year-old girl alive three weeks ago has been charged.

He is 26-year-old Garsha Wilson, a taxi operator, of a St Andrew address.

He was charged by detectives from the Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences (CISOCA) on Monday with attempted murder, abduction, rape, cruelty to a child and malicious destruction of property.

Reports from CISOCA reported that the little girl disappeared from the Transport Centre in Half-Way Tree, St Andrew, on March 22.

Later that same day, Wilson is alleged to have accompanied the child's mother to the Transport Centre to report her missing at the centre's police post.

girl found

However, while there, the police received a call that the little girl had been found.

Wilson is said to have then fled the scene but was arrested three days later following investigations.

Detectives are alleging that the child was picked up at the Transport Centre and taken to Smokey Vale, St Andrew, where she was sexually assaulted.

It is also being alleged that the child was choked to the point of unconsciousness and then buried by her attacker, who thought she was dead.

The child was reportedly buried in a shallow grave covered with rocks but later regained consciousness and dug herself out. She was walking along the roadway and helped by a resident who took her to the police.