The number of rapes in the tourist-teeming tip of Manhattan has tripled this year compared with the same period in 2007 – a frightening statistic that doesn’t include two chilling sex attacks this month alone.
In the most recent incident in the NYPD’s 1st Precinct, a 25-year-old woman was nearly raped early Sunday during a push-in at her apartment at tony Sullivan and Spring streets in SoHo.
A video snapshot of a suspect was caught on a hallway security camera at the address. The man had the woman down on her bed and was strangling her when a neighbor heard her cries and rushed to help, police said. The suspect fled.
The horrifying ordeal came less than two weeks after another sex attack on the southeast corner of Fulton and William streets April 2 at around 11:30 p.m.
Royal Walton, 42, grabbed a 19-year-old Pace University co-ed from behind and molested her before fleeing, cops said. The student helped solve her own case Saturday when she spotted Walton on the street at around 2:10 a.m. and alerted area security guards. Walton was nabbed nearby.
Additional reporting by Austin Fenner