An ex-con on lifetime parole for a subway slashing decades ago is being sought in a “brutal” Queens rape last week, cops said Wednesday.
Tony Kempsey, 58, is believed to have allegedly knocked a 49-year-old woman unconscious and raped her after she took a ride on his scooter in Elmhurst during the early morning of April 30, according to NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig.
Cops got a lead on the suspect by tracking the scooter through two boroughs, before the sexual assault, and then to an apartment in Lefrak City Plaza in Corona, Essig said.
“We have a good picture of him without the helmet,” Essig told reporters, adding, “We were then able to ID him.”
Kempsey was locked up for 20 years on a second-degree murder conviction for a slashing on the subway in 1992, according to the chief and state prison records.
He was released in 2013 and was put on lifetime parole for the conviction, state records show.
Police believe he’s the scooter driver who allegedly came upon a woman as she walked home around 5 a.m. that Sunday on 48th Avenue.
The two had a brief conversation before the woman jumped on the back of the ride and took off with him, cops said.
They only made it a few blocks to 48th Avenue and 72nd Street — an area Essig described as “desolate” — when the creep allegedly slugged her in the face, causing her to fall to the pavement and lose consciousness, police said.
When she came to, she realized she was being raped, cops said.
The sicko took off once he realized the victim had regained consciousness.
“The rape was caught on video, it is pretty brutal,” Essig said.
“He knocks her to the ground, knocks her out.
“She sustained bleeding to the brain.”
The woman has been unable to remember details after the traumatic experience, according to cops. It’s unclear if she was forced to get on the scooter or did so willingly.
The two have no prior known connections, according to Essig.
Kempsey’s last run-in with cops was in 2017 when he was arrested over a slashing and for allegedly impersonating a cop, Essig said.
It wasn’t immediately clear how that case was adjudicated.
In total, Kempsey has 10 priors for robbery, assault and grand larceny, according to the chief.
The last known address cops have for the ex-con is a shelter in Manhattan, Essig said.
