NEW YORK (AP) ­­- A former Olympic sprinter from the Caribbean confessed that he raped four women and a teenage girl during a four-year period after stalking them in the city’s parks, authorities said Monday.

Alvin Henry, a member of the 400-meter relay team for Trinidad and Tobago at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, was arrested Sunday near Prospect Park in Brooklyn by police who matched him to a composite sketch of the rape suspect .

The 30-year-old runner was arrested on charges of rape, sexual misconduct and sexual abuse, police said. He was being arraigned Monday, and information about his lawyer wasn’t immediately available.

Brian Lewis, secretary general of the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee, confirmed the man was the same Alvin Henry who had run for Trinidad and Tobago.

“There’s no denying that,” Lewis said, adding Henry had represented the country in other races.

Lewis said he didn’t know what Henry was doing in the United States. Henry lives in Queens.

“He stopped running a couple of years ago,” Lewis said. “He just dropped off the scene.”

Police said Henry attacked three women in Baisley Park and Roy Wilkins Park in Queens and two others in Prospect Park, including a 15-year-old girl in April. In at least four of the attacks, police said the women had been walking with men. When the men left, Henry pounced, police said.

The latest assault took place June 15 in Prospect Park, where police said Henry brandished a gun and raped a 34-year-old woman. After that attack, investigators were able to link it to others.

AP-ES-07-02-07 1650EDT

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