An MTA worker walking along the tracks near a desolate lower Manhattan subway station scared off a violent sex attacker during a rape, police sources said.
“That saved her life,” one of the sources said of the MTA worker’s light that caught the victim’s attention as she was being beaten and raped.
The 36-year-old Asian woman saw the light and screamed, causing her attacker to flee.
Police say Michael Torres, 29, targeted the 36-year-old Asian woman just after 1 a.m. Wednesday at the J train stop on the Bowery at Delancey St.
Torres — who authorities said has a long criminal history including 27 prior arrests dating to 1996 for mostly assault and drugs — is accused of beating and raping the woman.
“He throws her on the tracks, drags her into the tunnel, beats, rapes and sodomizes her,” a police source said.
Torres forced the woman to perform a sex act while threatening her with a screwdriver, according to a source.
The woman was taken to Bellevue Hospital for treatment, the FDNY said.
Meanwhile, investigators scoured the train station for surveillance footage and showed an image of the man around the neighborhood, a police source said.
Someone from a shelter one block north on the Bowery recognized Torres’ photo and told investigators the man had been staying there, a police source said.
He was taken into custody around 2 p.m. Thursday, police said.
Torres — who has 27 prior arrests dating back to 1996, mostly for assault and drugs — has been charged with first-degree rape, assault, criminal sex act, reckless endangerment and criminal possession of a weapon, police said.
“He has a long, violent criminal history,” a police source said.
He was being held Thursday night at the Manhattan Special Victims Unit in East Harlem, a police source said.
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