POLICE at District "A" Station are investigating the circulation and distribution of photographs making the rounds in The Pine, St Michael.

The photographs are believed to have been taken from a unit in the district after the death of a man who allegedly practised obeah. They are said to be nude pictures of young girls and men, some of whom live in The Pine and surrounding areas.

A woman reportedly made a complaint to police that she was being blackmailed into forking out $15 000 to retrieve pictures of herself.

Some angry residents want to know how the pictures, some of which are being sold on the streets for $5, got into the hands of certain people in the area after the unit was cleaned.

Residents said there was a mad rush to obtain items from the house including money and a crystal ball. Hundreds of pictures, believed to have been taken with a Polaroid camera, were found in a box on top of a wardrobe.

People have been displaying the pictures, some of which show dreadlocked men in T-backs on poles, while others used their cell phone cameras to snap the pictures and then download them onto the Internet.

But some residents believe that the may have cast his final spell of confusion on the closely knit St Michael community. They said a week before his death he sat on the step outside his front door and vowed that The Pine would be in an uproar after he passed away.

One resident, who was very close to him, said homes had now been destroyed because of the circulating pictures.

"What has people shocked is that they did not know that so many women were going to see this man, especially a lot of posh women.

"The mystery surrounding this whole thing is that nobody ever saw anyone except him come and leave the house. He used to come out late at night only and the house always used to be shut up. Husbands and boyfriends are now finding out that their partners were visiting the obeah man on a regular basis," the friend told the SATURDAY SUN.

She said although the obeah man was widely skilled, the majority of people visited him for problems of the heart.

"Women wanted him to get their men to stop cheating or to get them to love them more or to carry away other women's men. If they could not pay all the fees he would take pictures of them in all positions with a Polaroid camera, or find some other means to settle the bill."

She added that the man charged from $5 up to $3 000 for his services.

She said people in the district took up the crystal ball, his obeah sticks, candles, books and other voodoo tools.

"The man who got the crystal ball paid $1 000 for it and another obeah man bought the books," she said.

When contacted, police at District 'A' Station said they had heard about the pictures and were looking into the matter in its entirety.