By Stephen Cowles

The Tidewater News

A Suffolk man accused of three rapes in Franklin has been ordered to undergo a psychiatric examination.

Tremaine Maquece Porter, 26, was in Southampton County Circuit Court on Thursday for an arraignment, when the judge ordered the mental evaluation. A review is scheduled for Feb. 18.

Porter, of Harvest Drive in Suffolk, was arrested July 24 on a charge of abducting and raping a 17-year-old female the previous night behind an apartment complex in Franklin. On the morning of July 24, he is alleged by police to have forced his way into the home of a 48-year-old Franklin woman and then to have sexually assaulted her.

Police in Franklin had learned of the attack on the juvenile while investigating the July 24 attack. During the course of that investigation, police discovered evidence they believe linked Porter to a sexual assault that occurred Jan. 1, 2013.

In that incident, a 55-year-old female headed home from church in Franklin was grabbed by a man with a firearm who attempted to rob her. When the assailant was told the woman had no money with her, he allegedly forced her behind a residence, where he sexually assaulted her.

Porter has been held without bond in Western Tidewater Regional Jail since his arrest in July.

In addition to the three counts of rape, the suspect faces two counts of breaking and entering; three counts forcible sodomy on a helpless victim; abduction by force or intimidation; grand larceny; three counts of the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, first offense; object sexual penetration by force; abduction with the intent to defile; and rape of a helpless victim.