35 years for fiend who raped teen

A Queens man who picked up a runaway teen he met on the internet and drove her from Los Angeles to New York — committing statutory rape along the route — has been sentenced to more than three decades in prison.

Sean Price, 40, began communicating online with the Australian 16-year-old, identified as Jane Doe in court papers, in January 2017.

Prosecutors said Price took advantage of the teen's vulnerability and fragile mental state, coaxing her to follow through on a plan to flee her native Australia in May 2017 — and even funding her airfare.

“This was a 39year-old man who took advantage of a 16-year-old girl for his own sexual gratification,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Monica Castro said at Price's Friday sentencing, where he was given 35 years. “To put her on a pole as a stripper for his own financial gain.”

Castro said the victim's life, as well as those of her family's, has been destroyed as a result of the case. The teen, who is undergoing intense psychological treatment, dropped out of high school.

A despondent-looking Price, wearing a beige prison uniform, mostly sat with his head in his hands throughout his lengthy sentencing — at some points muttering to himself and to his attorney.

Price's attorney, Zoe Dolan, characterized her client as a lonely man who was just trying to help a young woman from a dysfunctional home — on the other side of the planet — drawing ire from United States District Judge Nicholas Garaufis.

“He couldn't find an appropriate friend in Queens?” Judge Nicholas Garaufis asked, incredulously. “Last time I looked at the census, there were 2.3 million people in Queens — and half of them are women.”