A paedophile grabbed a ten-year-old boy at a restaurant, forced him into the bathroom and sexually assaulted him.Jomar Caines had a history of similar crimes before carrying out the attack in March.Customers tried to intervene when they heard the boy’s frantic shouts from the bathroom at Pasta Basta in Hamilton.However, Caines swung a hammer at a teenage female rescuer and punched a male customer who tried to stop him leaving.He pleaded guilty yesterday to kidnap, sexual exploitation, serious assault and assault.According to a summary of evidence from prosecutor Cindy Clarke, the attack took place around 7.30pm when the victim was at Pasta Basta with his toddler brother, mother, and aunt.Caines approached the victim when he was sitting at a table holding his little brother. His mother had briefly gone outside the restaurant and his aunt was in a queue for food.“The defendant tapped him on his shoulder and whispered to him, ‘can you show me where the bathroom is?’ The victim, still with his brother in his arms, got up and entered the foyer door which accessed the bathrooms,” said Ms Clarke.“The defendant followed the two brothers and all three disappeared out of sight of the patrons of the restaurant.”The two boys and Caines entered the foyer and stood in a secluded passageway outside the bathroom entrance. When Caines told the victim to put his little brother down, he put the toddler back into the dining area before returning to the passageway.“As he entered, the defendant suddenly grabbed the complainant by his shirt and forcefully pulled him into the men’s bathroom. Once inside, the defendant secured the room by locking the door. He proceeded to fondle the chest area of the victim, who was now terrified and began to frantically shout for help and banged on the closed door, when two of the restaurant customers came to his assistance.“As the two customers neared the bathroom the victim was heard screaming ‘no, no, help, stop, put me down’. On hearing his squeals, one of the two concerned patrons, Sakena Tucker, pounded on the closed bathroom door and shouted for additional assistance,” said Ms Clarke.At this point, Caines emerged from the bathroom armed with a claw hammer and swung at 19-year-old Ms Tucker with the weapon.“Ms Tucker instinctively moved and avoided the blow, after which the armed defendant fled into the busy dining area where he indiscriminately punched at customers in an attempt to evade their grasp and make his way towards the exit,” said Ms Clarke.Another concerned patron, Allan Bean, was attacked by Caines when he tried to prevent him fleeing.“The defendant repeatedly punched him to his head and back and continued to punch Mr Bean as he shielded a toddler who was stood, vulnerable, within the doorway the defendant was trying to exit through,” said the prosecutor.“The defendant eventually escaped and ran through the city with several persons in pursuit. He made his way to the Hamilton Police Station where he was arrested and cautioned by police.”According to Ms Clarke, Caines told police “I am sick. It wasn’t sexual assault, it wasn’t sexual” and, “I just touched him on the arms and shoulders, it wasn’t sexual.” When he was searched, he had no money in his possession, but did have a pack of condoms.In addition to his admission that he kidnapped and sexually exploited the ten-year-old, Caines also admitted to a serious assault on Mr Bean and an assault on Ms Tucker. He denied possession of an offensive weapon in the form of a claw hammer and possessing drug equipment in the form of a small bottle. Ms Clarke requested that those charges lie on file.Caines, from Pembroke, now faces up to 20 years in jail, but his lawyer Mark Pettingill suggested he is mentally ill, and asked for psychological and psychiatric reports to be completed before he is sentenced.The defendant, who has fought as a middleweight boxer in local matches, has committed similar crimes before. In 1997, when he was 21 years old, he admitted kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy.Prosecutor Leighton Rochester said the teenager was standing outside his home when Caines called out to him. He then forced the boy into the basement of his home, placed his hand over his mouth, pulled down the boy’s pants and sexually assaulted him by force.Defence lawyer Kim Wilson said Caines had been sexually and mentally abused as a child, and had the academic and social skills of a 12 to 14-year-old child. The then Chief Justice Austin Ward jailed him for four years and ordered him to complete a sexual offenders’ treatment programme while in prison.Caines was released in September 1999, but was back in court two years later, where he admitted breaking in through a 17-year-old boy’s bedroom window in the early hours of the morning. He was jailed for a year.Defence lawyer Mark Pettingill commented after yesterday’s hearing: “These are always difficult cases, but in each instance we have to look at the best course to be followed, both in the interests of the victim, the community at large and the defendant.“Given the fact that people will be released at some point from custody, we want them to function appropriately in society.”