By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — A private-sector sanitation worker who admitted to trying to rape two women in Midtown while on the job was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Thursday.
Michael Payne, 27, was caught on surveillance video attacking a woman on Jan. 12, 2009, in an act that led authorities to match him to an earlier incident in the same neighborhood on Dec. 13, 2007, prosecutors said.
"The defendant robbed them of their ability to walk the streets of the city safely," Assistant District Attorney Craig Ortner said at Payne's sentencing Thursday.
Ortner said the victims "have suffered shame, embarrassment and disgust" because of Payne's crimes and that women both said they now "think twice" before going walking after dark.
Payne will have to register as a sex offender when he's released.
Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Gregory Carro said he hoped Payne would enroll in state programs while he was on probation to avoid future incidents that would land him back in prison.
"I hope that you take advantage of that time and enroll in any [Department of Corrections] program for sex offenders that they offer," the judge said.
Payne pleaded guilty on Oct. 14 to attempted rape and assault charges.
