Posted on October 18, 2021

Video Shows the Woman Raped on the SEPTA El Repeatedly Tried to Push Her Attacker Away

Vinny Vella, Philadelphia Inquirer, October 18, 2021

The man accused of raping a woman Wednesday night on SEPTA’s Market-Frankford Line told police that he recognized the woman on the train and approached her to start a conversation and that their encounter was consensual, but she told police that account was completely false, newly filed records show.

Investigators say the victim told police that the man, identified as Fiston Ngoy, 35, sat down next to her as she was alone, and ignored her pleas to go away. That account, along with the violent attack that followed, was corroborated by surveillance footage from the subway car {snip}

Fiston Ngoy

Fiston Ngoy

{snip}

However, no one else intervened in the assault, which took place just before 10 p.m. on the train as it headed west toward Upper Darby. It was unclear Monday how crowded the train was at the time, but Upper Darby Police Superintendent Timothy Bernhardt said had bystanders intervened, the victim may have been spared from the attack.

“There was a lot of people in my opinion that should have intervened, somebody should have done something,” Bernhardt said Saturday. “It speaks to where we are in society and who would allow something like that to take place. So it’s troubling.”

{snip}

Ngoy later told police that he had seen the woman before and then struck up a conversation with the woman on the train that escalated into kissing and physical contact, the affidavit said. He claimed that she initiated the sexual encounter and never resisted his advances.

The victim, in a statement given to police at Delaware County Memorial Hospital, said she had never seen Ngoy before, and never gave him permission to touch her.