Teen says she felt ‘panicked, broken’ as she endured repeated sexual abuse as a child

CEDAR RAPIDS — A 15-year-old girl said she lived in a prison — “built from fear, shame and silence” — she couldn’t escape for six years because she was repeatedly sexually assaulted by someone who should have protected her.

“He became the person who stole my trust, innocence and my childhood,” the teen said in a victim impact statement last week.

She said Elijah Allen Covington, 23, of Cedar Rapids, who was convicted in June for the “predatory” offenses, “didn’t just hurt me in those moments — he changed the course of my entire life.”

  Buy Photo

The teen recalled the fear and abuse she endured from 2016 through 2021 “like it was yesterday.” She would lay awake at night, “trembling, heart pounding, trying to breath quietly” so nobody would hear her.

She pretended nothing was wrong. She would smile when everyone else was smiling and laughing when all “I wanted was to scream.”

“Acting like I was OK while inside I was screaming, panicked and broken,” the teen said in her statement. “No one could see it — the invisible bruises. The invisible scars that still follow me to this day. For six years, you made me believe I was powerless but today I prove you wrong.”

She said there was no sentence to undo her pain and harm, but asked the judge to give her abuser a sentence that shows a child’s safety and innocence are ”sacred“ and a punishment that reflects the lasting harm and holds him accountable for ”every year, every fear and every moment of my stolen childhood.”

The teen’s parents, who also gave statements last week, asked the judge to impose the full sentence of 22 years to acknowledge the “lifelong” impact this has had on their daughter and themselves.

“Anything less would diminish the suffering she has endured,” her father said in his statement. “She deserves to know her voice matters, that her story is heard and that the person who did this will be held fully accountable.”

Sixth Judicial District Senior Judge Patrick Grady sentenced Covington to 22 years in prison for sexually abusing the girl, from the time she was 6 years old until she was 12.

Covington made an Alford plea in June to amended charges of three counts of lascivious acts with a child, all felonies; and assault with intent to commit sexual abuse and indecent contact with a child, both aggravated misdemeanors.

In an Alford plea, a defendant doesn’t admit guilt but admits the prosecution has sufficient evidence to prove its case.

Grady ran some of the convictions consecutively and some concurrently for a total of 22 years in prison in accordance with the plea agreement.

A remaining charge was dismissed as part of the plea agreement.

Grady also ordered Covington to serve a special sentence of parole and comply with the sex offender registry for life.

A no contact order to protect the victim also was granted for five years.

This is considered a predatory offense and if Covington commits a similar crime, the penalties could be enhanced, according to Grady’s sentencing order.

According to a criminal complaint, the child, when she was 14 year old, told her parents and then a forensic interviewer with the UnityPoint — St. Luke’s Child Protection Center that Covington sexually abused her continuously from the time he was 14 years old on Feb. 28, 2016 and she was 6 years old.

The abuse continued until Dec. 24, 2021 when she was 12 years old and he was 19 years old, the girl told officials. She provided explicit incidents and a Snapchat conversation she had with him and he acknowledged her age in January 2023.

Trish Mehaffey covers state and federal courts for The Gazette

Comments: (319) 398-8318; trish.mehaffey@thegazette.com