An ex-con recently released from prison after serving time for the vicious rape of a 13-year-old girl was arrested Thursday in connection with a rash of sex attacks in Queens this week, according to police.
John Garrison, 53, was released from an upstate prison earlier this year after spending nearly 16 years behind bars for the Oct. 3, 2007 rape, cops said. The man was convicted of dragging the girl into an alley on Glenwood Road near E. 38th St. in East Flatbush, Brooklyn and attacking her, cops said.
On Thursday, cops spotted Garrison near the corner of Jamaica Ave. and 104th St. in Richmond Hill, Queens around 12:30 p.m., with his pants around his ankles.
He was arrested and charged with public lewdness when police discovered a half-hour before the incident, he had approached a 23-year-old woman walking into her home in the same neighborhood. Garrison exposed himself to the woman, masturbated and took off on foot.
Cops recognized Garrison from a department-issued wanted poster after a spattering of similar incidents landed him back on the NYPD’s radar.
On Monday, the man approached a 51-year-old woman on 91st St. near 86th Ave. in Woodhaven, exposed himself and touched his penis, cops said.
He laid low until Wednesday, when the parolee snuck up behind a 10-year-old girl as she walked to her home in the same neighborhood around 3 p.m., cops said.
“Shut up or I’ll kill you,” the girl told cops the man said before he touched her chest.
Garrison took off, but a half hour later, in front of Lina’s Hair Spa on 97th St. near Jamaica Ave. in Woodhaven, employees watched as the man dropped his pants and masturbated in front of the shop’s glass windows.
He was hit with numerous charges when cops caught up with him on Thursday, including for sex abuse, forcible touching and acting in a manner injurious to a child. His arraignment in Queens Criminal Court was pending Thursday night.
Garrison has a lengthy history of arrests dating back to the 1990s, cops said — including a 2002 bust for exposing himself to a 16-year-old girl waiting at a bus stop near the corner of 175th St. and Hillside Ave. in Jamaica Estates.
Two years later, he approached a 30-year-old woman’s open window on Fourth Ave. near Fifth Ave. in Park Slope, Brooklyn and demanded she move toward him, take her clothes off and have sex with him. He threatened to shoot her if she refused, but didn’t display a gun.
So far this year, 371 people have reported being the victim of a rape to the NYPD. The figure is up just under 24% from the same time last year, when 300 victims came forward, according to NYPD data ending Sunday.
Police believe one factor contributing to the increase is the expansion of the legal definition of rape, which took effect Sept. 1 and now covers a broader range of forced sexual acts.
Also up are other sex crimes, with 1,021 incidents reported to cops so far this year, compared with 955 during the same time frame in 2024, according to the data.
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