Metro

Rapist outed in college essay gets sentencing pushed back

A Brooklyn man who for nearly a decade got away with the rape of his 8-year-old stepdaughter — until she mentioned the awful attack in her college entrance essay — got a judge on Monday to postpone his punishment so he could prepare a rebuttal to his victim’s pre-sentencing statement.

Albert Tarrats, 62, escaped arrest for more than nine years after the 2003 rape, the heinous crime kept secret until his brave former stepdaughter wrote about how the sex assault changed her life in an application essay for a Florida religious college.

“He wants time to respond, so he wants an adjournment?” Brooklyn Judge Dineen Riviezzo asked in court after defense attorney Ernest Hammer requested that the sentencing be pushed back.

The judge then granted the adjournment, citing a rarely invoked statute that gives a defendant time to mull over the pre-sentencing statement if the victim impact statement includes allegations that were not fully covered at trial.

“He’s exercising his right for an adjournment,” the judge said.

Tarrats was busted in 2012 for the rape of his ex-stepdaughter, whose mother had long since ditched him, after the young woman wrote her application essay to a Florida religious college about his attack.

A Brooklyn Supreme Court jury found him guilty June 19, after a week-long trial in which the victim, her sister, and their mother all gave emotional testimony.

Tarrats faces up to 25 years behind bars when he is finally sentenced July 7.

“He’s still sitting in jail, so it’s not a big deal for him to wait another week,” the victim told The Post Monday, declining to say more before her attacker is sentenced.