Bronx Homeless Sex Offender Rapes Woman Repeatedly While Holding Her Hostage In Abandoned Building For Five Days

A New York homeless man who is registered as a level 3 sex offender kidnapped a woman and repeatedly raped her while holding her captive for five days.

Forty-four-year-old Timothy “Lawless” Harnett was previously convicted of sodomy and sentenced to 18 years in state prison for allegedly threatening a 15-year-old girl with a razor on May 14, 1999. In that incident, Harnett forced the girl into a hotel room and sexually assaulted her for hours while keeping her hostage. He was released from prison in December 2020, finishing his parole in September 2021.

This year, between April 29 and May 2, Harnett captured a 28-year-old woman and kept her in an abandoned three-story building located in the Bronx. While holding her hostage, Harnett raped her several times a day. She was able to escape with the help of someone who was passing by.

According to prosecutors, the two went to the building’s upper area after Harnett offered to pay the woman in exchange for sex. Harnett then allegedly hit the woman in the leg with a tire iron while she wasn’t looking, causing her to fall to the floor. The man continued to brutally beat her to the point that she was left with a fractured wrist and dislocated knee, Fox News reports.

Harnett then allegedly took off the woman’s clothes, tied her up and raped her repeatedly for the entire time he had her. Fox News reports that the man also allegedly told her that he’d harm her family if she tried to get away. On the day of her escape, the man took a trip to the laundromat. During that time, the woman used the tire iron to break the window; she then used the broken glass to cut herself free.

Harnett has now been indicted on a slew of counts, including three counts of first-degree kidnapping, second-degree kidnapping, first-degree rape, third-degree rape, four counts of first-degree criminal sexual act, four counts of third-degree criminal sexual act, first-degree sexual abuse, attempted sex trafficking, attempted sexual assault in the first degree, and second-degree assault before Bronx Supreme Court Justice Raymond Bruce, Fox News reports.