THUG ATTACKS SCHOOLGIRL, 12

A 12 year old Queens girl was sexually assaulted in a horrifying daytime attack as she took a backyard shortcut on her way to school yesterday.  The Orthodox Jewish girl was on her way to a friend's house to catch a ride to the Torah Academy for Girls on Beach Sixth Street in Far Rockaway when a man suddenly appeared and assaulted her at 8 a.m.  She told investigators that after she was pulled into an alley and knocked to the ground, her attacker, who she could describe only as a man wearing a hood, ripped off her clothes and assaulted her.  The attack triggered a massive manhunt, complete with NYPD helicopters and K-9 units, but the unidentified attacker remained at large last night.  As the man released the girl, her teenage brother spotted them and yelled, which caused the man to flee.  A witness told police the attacker fled the scene in a white Toyota 4Runner with out-of-state plates, and a similar care, which had been reported stolen a few hours before, was found abandoned at the nearby Redfern Houses.  It could not be confirmed whether the care was connected to the sexual assault.

(New York)