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Other passengers aimed their smartphones toward a woman being raped on a SEPTA train, police say. But no one intervened.

The rape of a passenger on a SEPTA train one night last week lasted about six minutes, and other passengers not only looked on but appeared to point their smartphones at the assault as it happened, police said Monday.

But the only person to call 911 during the attack was an off-duty SEPTA employee, whose quick thinking allowed Transit Police officers to arrive three minutes later, interrupt the assault, and arrest the alleged rapist, newly filed records show.

“We want everyone to be angry, disgusted, and to join us in being resolute in keeping our system safe,” Transit Police Chief Thomas Nestel III said Monday at a news conference. “We need the public to notify us when they see something that seems to be unusual.”

The man charged in the attack, Fiston Ngoy, told police that he recognized the woman on the train and approached her to start a conversation and that their encounter was consensual. She told police that account was completely false, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest.

Investigators say that the victim was alone when Ngoy, 35, sat down next to her in the railcar Wednesday night and that he ignored her pleas to go away. That account, along with the violent attack that followed, was corroborated by SEPTA surveillance footage, the affidavit said.

Ngoy remained in custody Monday in lieu of $18,000 bail, awaiting an Oct. 25 preliminary hearing in Upper Darby.

The assault took place just before 10 p. m. Wednesday as the train on the Market-Frankford Line headed west toward Upper Darby. It was unclear Monday how crowded the train was at the time, but Upper Darby Police Superintendent Timothy Bernhardt said that had bystanders intervened, the victim may have been spared from the attack.

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