An accused serial rapist on trial in the sexual assaults on five women in Birmingham over 13 months took the stand in his own defense, claiming the sex in each of the cases was consensual.

Johnathan Fitzgerald Lockett, who goes by the name Master Lockett, is charged with sodomy, sexual torture, rape, robbery, and theft in the assaults, which took place from October 2019 through November 2020.

Jefferson County prosecutors Isabella Colombo and Julie McMakin contend the 43-year-old Lockett, a massage therapist operating under the business name Mr. Phalanges, targeted women who were down on their luck and had turned to prostitution to make ends meet. He connected with the women through online escort websites and then violently sodomized them against their will, they said.

Lockett and his attorney, Jason Wollitz, however, claim the women weren’t victims, but prostitutes and drug addicts who often sought out Lockett because they knew he could provide them with drugs and went to him on a regular basis.

Birmingham police in November 2020 first announced the arrest of Lockett. More women came forward and Lockett was eventually indicted on roughly 30 charges involving 12 sexual assault victims.

He is only on trial this week in five of those of those 12 cases. All five of those victims have testified in this week’s trial.

The case is being tried before Jefferson County Circuit Judge Shanta Craig Owens.

In an Oct. 28, 2019, attack, a victim who worked as a dancer at a gentleman’s club in Birmingham said she was struggling financially, and a friend pointed her to an escort website where she could make extra money as a sex worker.

Prosecutors say Lockett responded to her ad and eventually they agreed to meet in the 7800 block of First Avenue South in East Lake.

The victim thought they would go into the house there for their “date,” but instead Lockett took her to the back of the house. The victim told him she had a gun and that angered him, Colombo said.

He shoved her, grabbed her by the hair, and then rummaged through her purse, taking out her purple and black handgun.

The suspect then raped her both vaginally and anally, prosecutors said.

Lockett, however, said he had met that woman at a club and then ran into her at a gas station where he told her recognized her from the club and gave her a business car. She then immediately texted him.

Lockett said the victim texted him a screenshot of her ad on Skip the Games Escort App and he responded with, “Oh, this is what you do?”

They began to communicate and eventually met at the East Lake location, where he said the victim checked him for weapons. “She patted me down,’’ he testified. “She searched me.”

He said he gave her $200 for oral sex and vaginal sex.

Lockett testified that he had a fetish for what he called the Triple Threat – oral sex, vaginal sex, and then anal sex. He said he suffered from erectile dysfunction and the oral sex would prepare him for the rest.

He said the victim told him it would be an $100 for anal sex and that she agreed to the sodomy.

Lockett said he initially paid the victim with real money, but then switched it out with counterfeit money before they parted ways.

Lockett acknowledged that he videoed the encounter on his cell phone. The victim could be heard on that video saying, “Oh God, please no.”

Authorities said in December 2019, another woman began communicating with someone who authorities said was Lockett on the Skip the Games Escort App. She was struggling with addiction and desperate for cash.

They agreed to meet on Dec. 6 in the 7800 block of First Avenue South.

When the victim arrived, the suspect told her they had to have their “date” in the garage because his family was inside the residence. She performed oral sex on him, and they engaged in consensual vaginal and anal sex.

However, a dispute arose when Lockett supposedly went over his time allotment. Prosecutors said they had previously agreed on $100 for 15 minutes.

Prosecutors said he raped her vaginally and anally, at gunpoint. He is accused of pistol whipping her and stealing her purse.

That victim was taken to the hospital where she underwent emergency eye surgery. She was left with permanent eye damage.

Lockett said he met that victim not on an app, but at an Irondale hotel. He said when he encountered her at the hotel, he said to her, ‘Y’all having fun?” and she replied, “You can too.”

He said they ended up in his vehicle where she willingly performed oral sex on him for free.

They met again on Dec. 6 with the agreement that he would pay her $200 for the Triple Threat, he said. He said he also gave her $300 more for her cell phone.

He denied pistol whipping her.

Lockett said that encounter was also recorded. He said he recorded his encounters so that he wouldn’t find himself in the position he is currently in – accused of rape.

“I record as proof I didn’t do nothing out of line, I didn’t force nobody to do anything,’’ he testified.

He said he saw that victim again about a week later when she contacted him and said, “I’m available.” He paid her $200 for the Triple Threat and did not see her after that.

On April 3, another woman posted an ad about Skip the Games app at the suggestion of a friend.

Prosecutors say Lockett responded and provided her with his TextApp number. They agreed to meet, again $100 for 15 minutes, she picked him up where he directed her to an alley in East Lake.

Authorities say Lockett raped the woman vaginally and anally at gunpoint in the backseat, filming her and taking pictures of her.

When he was done, he took her cellphone and her ID and threw it. The victim was able to find her cellphone and call 911.

Lockett said that victim had actually contacted him first. He said he received her picture from a cell phone number he didn’t recognize, and she said a friend had given her his number.

She said a friend told her if she wanted to make extra money, she should contact Lockett.

They eventually agreed on a price and met, and that they planned to have their encounter in the car. Lockett was wearing a face mask and gloves as protection from COVID-19, he testified.

He said she agreed to $200 for two hours for the Triple Threat, but said he finished early so he asked her for $80 back.

That woman, he said, got angry when she realized he was paying her with counterfeit money. “She said, ‘I’m going to call the police,’’’ he testified.

He said he never saw her again after that.

Lockett is accused of attacking a fourth woman in July 2020.

Prosecutors say that victim, who was living out of her car, was at the Sunoco gas station on Birmingham’s east side needing parts for her car.

A man in a black Nissan Versa – Lockett – approached her and they talked, prosecutors say. He told her he was an Uber drive and would take her to Auto Zone to get parts for her car.

While driving, allegedly Lockett told her his wife gave him money to have sex with other women, and he told the victim he likes anal sex, Colombo said.

He got into the back seat with her and raped her. They with to a second location, the prosecutor said, where Lockett sodomized the woman with the purple and black gun he stole from the earlier victim.

He left her there, taking with him her purse which contained her car keys, wallet, and cellphone.

Lockett, however, said he already knew that woman and had previously given her drugs for her to perform oral sex on him.

He said she asked him for a ride to Ensley and he took there, with the agreement that she would give him gas money.

She testified that they stopped in a field and had sex, but Lockett said he never had sex with her that day.

When she refused to give him money for gas, he said, he kept her cell phone, which she had been charging in his car.

In the fifth assault, On Nov. 2, 2020, a nail technician whose business had suffered because of COVID-19, posted an ad on Skip the Games.

Lockett responded and they agreed to vaginal sex. He picked her up and she got into the back seat, where the suspect drove her to an apartment building.

Instead of going inside, Colombo said, Lockett told her they’re going to have their “date” on the steps.

The suspect then is accused of raping her anally. Colombo said the victim was “humiliated, embarrassed, and violated,’’ and begged him to take her home.

But the suspect said he needed his car washed and took her with him.

She begged to go home and allegedly Lockett dragged her out of the car and choked her. Three people witnessed the assault and came to her aid after Lockett left.

Lockett, however, said he met that woman when she flagged him down while he was driving on Third Avenue West. He said she got into his car thinking he was someone else, and then showed him her ad on the escort website.

He said he told her he was interested in that.

He said that woman refused to get out of his car and that he feared for his safety based on a conversation she was having on his cell phone.

He said he eventually got her out of the car.

Lockett will return to the stand Friday for cross-examination by the prosecution.

He is the defense’s only witness.