A trusted female employee at a Queens day-care center yesterday confessed to a sickening crime – she repeatedly raped a 4-year-old boy she targeted because he was affectionate, police said.

Khemwhatie Bedessie, 37, had sex with the boy at least three times at Veda’s Learning World in Richmond Hill between Jan. 1 and the first week of February, officials said.

On Feb. 20, the youngster told his mother that Bedessie had taken him into the bathroom on several occasions, pulled down his pants and forced him to have sex with her. The mother took her son to Jamaica Hospital, where doctors called cops.

Police said there was initially not enough evidence to charge Bedessie, based on the young boy’s testimony.

But the perverted perpetrator came to the Queens Child Abuse Squad’s offices yesterday, turned herself in and confessed.

Bedessie lives with her mother, sister, niece and brother in-law. A woman who answered the door at the home said, “Our family is having a crisis, we have no comment.”

A neighbor, Edwin Jaudon, 50, says he’s known the day-care worker for 12 years.

“This isn’t her at all,” he said. “She’s a sweet person, and this is hard for me to believe.”

Jaudon said Bedessie’s sister is also employed as a day-care worker, but he didn’t think she worked at the same center.

The suspect also baby-sits on the side, and has watched a boy from the neighborhood who is about the same age as the victim, he said.

“She’s a respectable, upstanding citizen. That’s how we know her,” he added.

“The scary part of it is, if it’s true. how did it happen?” Jaudon said. “The human mind is a monster.”

At Veda’s, concerned parents were horrified by the allegations.

“I’m totally shocked,” said Sheetal Marken, whose 3-year-old son, Shiivam, has been enrolled for six months.

” ‘Shocked’ is the wrong word – I’m shaking right now,” he said, holding his son in his arms.

“I don’t like it at all; it’s very disturbing,” said Bebkha Rampersad, 43, father of a 3-year-old. “I’m concerned about it. I don’t want anything like this to happen to my son. I just hope it’s not true.”

One man who didn’t want to be identified called Bedessie “a good teacher.”

The father of a 2-year-old said, “I’ve never had any problem with her. She’s a nice lady.”

A law-enforcement source said that the Bedessie would abuse the child between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. before the other teachers arrived.

Bedessie targeted the boy because “he would run up and hug her and touch her breasts,” said the source.

About 16 kids are enrolled in Veda’s Learning Center.

It’s a private day-care facility licensed by the city.

Parents said they pay about $100 a week per child.

Bedessie, who has worked as a teacher’s aide at Veda’s for four years, claims not to have abused any other children, police sources said.

Bedessie is charged with rape, sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child.

“The charges are very disturbing,” said Queens DA Richard Brown.

“The child, I’m afraid, will never recover from the emotional trauma inflicted upon him by an individual into whose care he was entrusted by his parents.”