Cedar Rapids man charged with sexually abusing child

CEDAR RAPIDS — A Cedar Rapids man has been arrested on charges that he sexually abused a child repeatedly while the child was between the ages of 6 and 12.

Elijah Allen Covington, 22, is charged with four counts of second-degree sexual abuse.

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The child reported the abuse to parents and then to a forensic interviewer at the UnityPoint-St. Luke’s Child Protection Center when the child was 14, according to a criminal complaint.

Covington was 14 years old when he started sexually abusing the child in 2016 and it continued until Covington was 19 in 2021, and the child was 12, the complaint states.

Covington, who was arrested Friday, had his first appearance in court this weekend and was being held in the Linn County Jail on a $100,000 cash-only bail.

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