A sexual predator who repeatedly raped a girl creepily told his now-adult victim to “learn to let go” of her nightmare yesterday as a Brooklyn judge slapped him with a 47-year prison sentence.
Adam Wright, who forced himself on the 12-year-old in November 2002, insisted he’s a changed man who’s found God behind bars and wants to “instill some good morals and values” in his kids.
“Let go, learn to let go,” Wright said calmly as he looked directly at his victim, who fought back tears.
“Don’t hold on to any pain, don’t hold on to it. Give it to the Lord and he’ll take care of it for you.”
A jury convicted Wright in December of sexually assaulting the middle-schooler in the elevator- equipment room of a Canarsie rooftop, where he had lured her after following her into the building.
But he avoided being caught until 2008, when his arrest for carrying an open container of alcohol led to a DNA hit for the monstrous 2002 attack.
In an emotion-packed statement, the young woman wiped away tears as she faced her well-dressed attacker.
“Nine years ago, I told you I was 10 years old, and you still took advantage of me,” said the 21-year-old mother, who had lied about her age in an attempt to keep the creep away from her.
The second attack occurred once Wright allowed the girl to put her clothes on again.
“November 13, 2002, was the worst day of my life,” she said in court yesterday.
“It was a day that my childhood was taken by a man I never saw or even knew.”
The sex attack scarred her for years, the victim said, destroying her good-natured personality and forever altering her trust in men.
“I was a lovable, sweet, warm-hearted girl,” she said. “After that day, I became aggressive, mean. Basically, I was put into a shell. No one could bring me out of this shell. I had nightmares, day in and day out, year after year.”
The victim’s family had to move from Brooklyn to Queens in the wake of the sex attack, she said.
“My grades dropped off and I just couldn’t think anymore,” she said.
“It took me five years to start piecing the puzzle of myself together again. I was very afraid of men.
“Give him a long time in prison so he can sit down and think about what he has done,” she told the judge.
Wright acted as his own attorney during the trial, with the victim twice running off the witness stand in tears as he cross-examined her.
Supreme Court Justice Dineen Riviezzo praised Wright’s “professionalism” in the courtroom, but tore into him for showing no remorse for the “particular heartlessness” of his crime.
“The defendant raped a 12-year-old stranger, then completely dressed her, leading her to believe, however fleetingly, that her nightmare was over,” Riviezzo said.
“Then he undressed her and raped her a second time.”
Wright, 44, had previously rejected a plea that would have caged him for 15 years and complained that a longer term amounts to a “life sentence” for a man his age.
“I would still like to instill some good morals and values in them,” he said of his seven children.