East River Park rape suspect Paul Niles arrested, NYPD says

A homeless man turned himself into the police for raping and robbing a jogger in a Lower East Side park, authorities said.

On Saturday evening, Paul Niles, 28, flagged down a cop car in southeastern Queens’, and was taken into custody, police said. He was bicycling when he approached a 26-year-old runner at East River Park, near Cherry Street, on the evening of Nov. 25, according to police. He allegedly grabbed her hair, and dragged her into an amphitheater before he raped her, police said.

Niles then allegedly robbed her, and used her credit card at a deli.

He also allegedly approached a woman, 56, earlier that evening in the Lower East Side and groped her, police said. He started talking to the victim near the FDR Drive and Grand Street, and grabbed her backside before fleeing, police said. That victim came forward during the investigation of the rape.

Authorities charged him with first-degree rape and second-degree robbery, as well as third-degree identity theft.

Niles was busted recently in October for another sex crime, when he allegedly masturbated in front of a Queens schoolyard, authorities added. Police charged him with endangering the welfare of a child.

He was awaiting arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court Sunday.