Instead of babysitting, sicko took 5-year-old girl to Upper East Side apartment to sexually abuse her: Queens district attorney
A man charged with abducting a 5-year-old girl he was supposed to babysit took her back to his apartment, played dress-up with her and then sexually abused her, according to the Queens district attorney.
Franz Vila, 75, was arraigned on charges of committing a predatory sex act on a child, criminal sex act, kidnapping and endangering the welfare of a child in Queens Criminal Court on Thursday afternoon and held on $275,000 cash bond.
Vila, who lives in Manhattan, ran into the mother of the child outside a Jackson Heights supermarket around 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, authorities said.
He was asked to watch the child play at a local Queens park, but the outing was only supposed to last about half an hour, according to a criminal complaint.
At 12:30 p.m., when he had not returned with the child, the worried mother went looking for him, first scouring the Queens park and then local restaurants and other green spaces, she told investigators.
After half an hour of searching and not finding her daughter, the mother called police, who issued a Level-Two mobilization to hunt for the girl and Vila.
Little did they know, the elderly man had taken the child back to his Upper East Side apartment, where he played games with the girl on his bed, the victim told investigators.
Vila had her change out of her pink patterned dress and into an all-white dress and then sexually abused the child.
For about four hours, as police and the mom went looking for her, Vila had her in his apartment and then took her on the subway back to Queens, according to the complaint.
An eagle-eyed straphanger spied the two on the F train platform at the 74th St.-Roosevelt Ave. station at 4:15 p.m. and jumped into action, authorities said.
The good Samaritan grabbed the girl by the arm to get her away from the elderly suspect and called out for police. Nearby cops heard the cries for help and nabbed Vila.
During the investigation, the mother was also arrested and charged with acting in a manner injurious to a child, but the Queens DA later dropped the charges.
Vila’s lawyer, Alex Moulter of the Harlem Neighborhood Defenders, could not be reached for comment.
