Convicted pedophile arrested, charged with child sex abuse of 2-year-old girl at Arkansas pre-school

An Arkansas man who used to operate an at-home daycare has been arrested on child sex abuse charges. The victim was two years old at the time of the incident and the suspect is being held on a $100,000 bond.

Jamie Speaks, 55, of Sebastian County, was taken into custody on July 11 by the Sebastian County Sheriff's Office. Speaks is a registered level two sex offender, according to the Arkansas Crime Information Center's Sex Offender Registry database.



The charges against Speaks were the result of an investigation that commenced on May 26, 2022, when the parents of a 16-year-old girl reported to the Greenwood police that their daughter had been sexually abused by Speaks at Ms. Tina's Preschool when she was two years old, according to the arrest affidavit reviewed by 5 News.

The teen reportedly told officers that Speaks would sexually abuse her in the daycare bathroom while his wife worked in the kitchen. The victim, now aged 16, came forward with the allegations after discussing the alleged abuse during a counseling session.

Speaks has been accused of child sex abuse in two civil lawsuits against Ms. Tina's Preschool. Each lawsuit claims that the daycare hired Speaks despite knowing he was a convicted child sexual predator. He is accused in the lawsuits of "wrongfully, intentionally, and forcefully making harmful physical sexual contact with [small children]" who were students at Ms. Tina's Preschool.

In 1993, Speaks was convicted of sexually abusing a child, age 7, who was in the care of his and his wife, Wanda Speaks', at-home daycare in Hackett. The daycare closed as a result of the conviction. Wanda Speaks was hired by Ms. Tina's Preschool in 1994, according to the outlet.

The suit claims that the preschool's owner, Tina Skaggs, hired Wanda despite her husband's child sex abuse convictions. The suit states that Skaggs allowed Speaks to "regularly spend time at the preschool" despite being a "convicted child molester and sex offender." Jamie Speaks pleaded guilty in 2012 to sexual assault and sexual indecency of a child, court documents show.