Bklyn Rapist Gets 50 Years

By MICHELLE CUMMINGS

After a serial sex offender refused to appear in court for his sentencing on Thursday, a Brooklyn judge gave him 50 years to life in prison for raping and robbing a woman in Bushwick nearly two years ago.

Supreme Court judge Dena Douglas sentenced Michael Mann, 54, in his absence after Mann waived his right to be present in court in a voicemail to his attorney.

Mann was convicted of predatory sexual assault after brutally raping and robbing a 27-year-old victim of $5 at knifepoint.

After lying-in-wait he wrapped his hands around her neck from behind as she walked home around 2:45 a.m. on Aug. 16, 2016, the prosecutors said.

While Mann raped her he threatened her saying he knew where she lived and that he would kill her.

The victim who moved to Los Angeles mustered up the courage to testify against the ambush predator.

She did not appear in court Thursday. 

“The only thing pushing me through my testimony was knowing that if I could keep this from happening to just one other person, going on the stand to relive this hell would be worth it,” the victim said in a victim impact statement read by assistant district attorney Lauren Silver.

“Broken pieces of a bowl is all that I am now,” she said in the statement.

Judge Douglas called the defendant’s behavior abhorrent and reprehensible.  She said, “You stole the most important thing from her, self-respect.”  She said, “It’s time to regain the broken pieces of her life.”

Mann was convicted on two counts of predatory sexual assault and one count of first-degree sexual abuse, first-degree robbery as a sexually motivated felony and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon. He first told investigators was the incident was the consensual acting out of a “rape fantasy” but that defense soon withered under scrutiny.

The deviant will serve two 25 to life sentences consecutively.