Raleigh rape victim drew sketch of attacker, later spotted his photo on TV

An Apex man has been charged with raping a teen outside her Raleigh home last year.

Sean Thomas Klinek, 28, of 1010 E. Lady Diana Court, was charged Wednesday with first-degree forcible rape, first-degree kidnapping and assault causing serious bodily injury. He was being held Thursday in the Wake County jail under a $1.5 million bond.

A 15-year-old girl was returning to her home in the Dominion Park neighborhood in northwest Raleigh from a nearby swimming pool on May 28, 2017, when a man came up behind her and chased her into her backyard, Wake County Assistant District Attorney Katie Pomeroy said in court Thursday.

"He slams her face into the gate, slams her face into the ground," and then sexually assaults her, Pomeroy said

The teen suffered a concussion – Pomeroy said she still suffers from memory loss – a dislocated jaw and extensive bruising in the attack.

Because she is an artist, she drew a sketch of her attacker and gave it to police, the prosecutor said.

In February, the girl notified police that she had seen the man's photo on television in connection with an Orange County robbery.

"On comes a mugshot, several mugshots, one of this defendant of two people arrested in Orange County for robbery with a dangerous weapon," Pomeroy said. "She immediately says, 'Oh my God. That is him. I recognize that is him. That is the man who attacked me.'"

When Klinek was arrested in Orange County, he was in a blue truck similar to one the teen saw her attacker get into after she was raped, the prosecutor said.

Investigators noted how similar the mugshot looked to the sketch, and the girl later picked Klinek's photo out of a lineup as her attacker, Pomeroy said.

Authorities said Klinek was working in the girl's neighborhood laying cable in May 2017.

"We have, right now, two other unsolved attacks in that similar area with similar circumstances," Pomeroy said. "Obviously, the state has a concern with a brazen attack in the middle of the day."

Klinek was convicted in June of the Orange County robbery charge and has been serving a two years on probation, according to state Department of Public Safety records. He has previous convictions for assault on a female, breaking and entering, false imprisonment, larceny and drug offenses, records show.