NY CRAZIES NOT ABOVE RAPING WOMAN INSIDE CHURCH

Woman raped at Manhattan church by homeless man: lawsuit 

 

By Kathianne Boniello

 

 

New York post 

March 12, 2022 

 

 

 

The incident occurred at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Hamilton Heights

 

 

A homeless man beat and raped a woman inside a Manhattan church — a “sickening” attack that ended only when a hero priest intervened, she claims in a lawsuit.

The terrifying ordeal began Jan. 30, 2019, when the 68-year-old victim, who lives nearby Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Hamilton Heights, noticed the lights were off, which was “abnormal.”

So the woman, identified in the legal filing only as “Jane Doe,” went to check, found the Catholic church’s doors open, called out, and was suddenly accosted.

The alleged attacker was a man who had hung around the church before and “exposed his genitals to older women,” she said in the Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit.

The vagrant grabbed the woman, “covered her mouth, took her to the bathroom, locked the two of them inside and he proceeded to beat her with his fist and slam her against the wall. At that point, the perpetrator ripped off [her] clothes and raped her,” according to the lawsuit.

The nightmare finally ended around 10 p.m., when Rev. Gilberto Angel-Neri came by, noticed the doors open and called out, prompting the victim to scream and her attacker to flee, she said in court papers. 

 

Hero priest Rev. Gilberto Angel-Neri’s arrival ended the attack

 

Cops arrested Craig Ellis, 55, about two hours and a block away on Broadway. The homeless man with at least 43 prior arrests stretching back to the late 1990s allegedly had Jane Doe’s jacket and cellphone on him, police sources told The Post.

Ellis is being held on $100,000 cash bail, records show. He was hit with a slew of charges ranging from attempted rape and sexual abuse to robbery and assault and has undergone numerous psychiatric evaluations as the criminal case drags on, according to court records.

Jane Doe was taken by ambulance to Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital after the attack.

The accuser and her husband claim the man who attacked her “was known to the church members and staff to be a danger to the community,” and that Our Lady of Lourdes and the New York Archdiocese “failed to take reasonable security measures such that they allowed a dangerous person onto the premises.”

She seeks unspecified damages.

Rev. Angel-Neri declined to comment. The Archdiocese declined to comment, saying it had yet to be served with the lawsuit.