Hours after a woman was raped on a Red Line train in April, Metro Transit Police arrested 39-year-old John Hicks. The case wasn’t publicized until today, though, when Hicks made his first court appearance.

Originally charged with attempted first-degree rape, first-degree sex offense and second-degree assault, he is now being charged with first-degree rape, the Washington Post reports.

Prosecutors and police recounted a harrowing attack between the Forest Glen and Glenmont stations that took place as the train headed north on the morning of April 12.

From the Post:

According to what she told police, she had fallen asleep aboard the train in her seat about midway in a car and awoke around the Takoma Park station, which is at the border of the District and Montgomery. She told police she noticed a man dressed in black and about 35 to 40 years old. He approached her.

“Do you have a boyfriend?” he asked, the woman recalled to police. “Are you going to Glenmont?”

As the train made its way through the Forest Glen station, the man pulled out a folding knife and flashed the blade, the woman told police. The man then placed the woman “in a bear-hug and forcefully guided her to a separate portion of the train car, blocking her attempts to exit,” wrote [Metro Transit Detective C.H.] Dorrity, the detective.

The man then raped her, said [Assistant State’s Attorney Elizabeth] Haynos.

Hicks then moved her to have her “sit in the corner” of the car, where he assaulted her again, police charge.

Although Metro Transit Police arrested Hicks within hours—going off surveillance video and SmarTrip records—WMATA didn’t report the incident to the public until today.

Prosecutors said Hicks has three previous sexual offense convictions, two against minors, WJLA’s Kevin Lewis reports. A judge denied Hicks bond at his appearance today; he is due in court again in June.

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