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

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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.”

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, tr