The victim was walking home around 2:45 a.m. from the Kosciuszko Street J subway station on Aug. 16, 2016 when Mann grabbed her from behind holding a knife, according to a statement from the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.

“It’s difficult for me to be in crowds because when someone walks behind me, it’s like I freeze and can’t breathe,” the letter continued.

When Mann, 54, asked for money, she gave him $5 but he began groping and kissing her. The assaulter then cut off her clothes and raped her while threatening her by saying he knew where she lived and would kill her.

He was arrested the next day when police responded to a call regarding a dispute and recognized him wearing the same clothes from the assault advisory. A jury then found him guilty of predatory sexual assault, sexual abuse, sexually motivated robbery and weapon possession in a trial that brought his victim to testify.

“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,” Silver read from the statement.

Mann was previously convicted of first-degree rape in 1985, pinning him with a lifetime sex offender registration, according to the New York State Sex Offender Registry.

“We are determined to keep dangerous predators like this defendant off our streets,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement. “The defendant’s heinous and cowardly crime against a defenseless woman was the ultimate violation of her physical and mental well-being, yet she still had the courage to face him in court.”

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