LANSDOWNE, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — Fiston Ngoy, the man accused of raping a woman on a Market-Frankford Line train, was ordered to stand trial on rape and other charges on Monday.
Prosecutors say on Oct. 13, he raped a woman while she was passed out.
Initially, Upper Darby and SEPTA police said people were standing around recording the rape. That narrative was picked up by tabloids around the world, to the point that Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer held a press conference saying that’s not how it happened.
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The woman who was raped testified that she was blacked out, and prosecutors say video shows she was unconscious, which means it would have been difficult, if not impossible, for people getting on and off the train to understand what was happening.
The woman said she got off work at her job in West Philadelphia, stopped at a deli, had a few beers — the exact number wasn’t clear — then bought two more before getting on the El.
She said she remembers getting on the train in the wrong direction, then a man sitting down next to her and putting his arm around her. She said she tried to elbow him off of her, but the last thing she remembers is him pushing her down on the seat.
The next thing she remembers, she testified, is being helped off the train on a stretcher at 69th Street Transportation Center in Upper Darby and being taken to the hospital.
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Prosecutors played Ngoy’s interview with police, during which he said she never resisted and it was consensual.
Ngoy has a formal arraignment scheduled for Jan. 5.