Teen accused of raping neighbor allegedly asked if he could do yard work to make it up to her

An 18-year-old Florida man raped his neighbor at knifepoint and then asked her if he could make it up to her by doing yardwork, authorities said.

The woman was awakened Friday by a masked man “hovering over her,” according to a probable cause affadavit.

Timothy Walding “then placed his hand tight over her mouth and told her not to scream while holding a knife to her neck.”

The woman told cops she could only see the suspect’s eyes as he tied both her hands together. Cops say that Walding spoke to the victim after sexually assaulting her, and that there was “a lot of dialogue” between them.

Fearing for her life, the woman tried to convince the suspect she did not know him. He told her that he “could not imagine leaving two kids without a mother because his mother passed away” when he was 12.

Walding would later reveal himself to her by taking off his mask, according to cops.

When she asked him how he got into the house, he said, “you really should deadbolt your door because I didn’t really want to do this, but I had to do it,” according to the affadavit.