Iowa City man charged with sexual abuse of child

IOWA CITY — An Iowa City man has been charged with second-degree sexual abuse after police say he enticed two girls under age 13 into a residence and sexually abused one of them.

Gael Ewawa Mpia, 27, also is charged with two counts of enticing a minor under 13 and one count of false imprisonment.

On March 14, police were called to a fight in progress near Lincoln Avenue and Newton Road in Iowa City where several people were “clearly distraught,” according to a criminal complaint.

The investigation of the fight led police to discover that Mpia allegedly had enticed the two girls into an apartment and sexually abused one of them.

When the girls had attempted to leave the apartment, he chased them and wrapped his arms around one of them, preventing her from leaving as she screamed for him to get away.

A no-contact order has been filed on behalf of the victims, and Mpia is being held in the Iowa Medical Classification Center Correctional Facility in Coralville, where he was already incarcerated.

Mpia was sentenced in May to five years in prison for charges of theft and enticing a minor that were filed in March, a couple weeks after the fight and reported sexual assault.

The theft happened March 27, when Mpia stole a backpack from someone at a gas station, according to a criminal complaint.

Mpia was arrested March 29, after he contacted someone he believed to be under age 16 and invited them to meet him at Old Capitol Town Center to smoke marijuana and have sexual relations. He was met at the mall by Iowa City police and arrested.

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