From staff reports

Police have booked a man in connection with last semester’s rape and robberies of several Loyola students. Novell Campbell, a 23-year-old New Orleans man, was booked with aggravated rape, aggravated kidnapping, sexual battery, three counts of armed robbery and two counts of simple battery, according to a Wednesday Times-Picayune report. Two 20-year-old women were approached about 4:30 a.m. Oct. 27 by an armed man while they were sitting on the porch of their Zimple Street apartment. The man forced the women to the side of the house and took $60 from them, the victims said. Two 18-year-old women said that while walking on Freret Street Nov. 3, they were approached by a man with a gun. He took $25 from the victims. He then forced them into an alley, where the man raped them, according to NOPD. At the time, Roger Pinac of University Police said there wasn’t enough information to determine if the assailant was a serial rapist.Novell turned himself into police Tuesday, according to the Times-Picayune. The police investigation began focusing on Campbell after authorities learned he was arrested in August 2001 on an obscenity accusation near Tulane University’s uptown campus, the paper said. Victims identified Campbell from a photographic lineup, the paper said.

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