A 24-year-old man from Manchester, New Hampshire, is behind bars in Augusta, charged with gross sexual assault against a 13-year-old Monmouth girl.

Ismail Maalin was arrested Tuesday after Monmouth police picked him up at the girl’s home in Monmouth and questioned him at the police station there.

A judge ordered him held in lieu of $50,000 cash bail following a hearing Wednesday afternoon at the Capital Judicial Center.

According to a probable cause affidavit filed in court, Monmouth police Officer Dana Wessling said the girl’s mother reported that she had left home in the middle of the night, and Wessling recalled a traffic stop of a vehicle at 2:15 a.m. Monday and a “young-looking” white girl was in the vehicle along with two black men.

He said the vehicle later proceeded on.

The mother later called to say her daughter returned home and later indicated she had been assaulted sexually by one of the men, despite her protests against it, while they were in the vehicle’s back seat at an Augusta gas station.

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The girl’s mother then impersonated her daughter on Facebook and invited the men back, and police interviewed them. The vehicle’s driver was released, but Maalin was arrested after he told police he had oral sex with the girl and touched her sexually, Wessling said in the affidavit. Maalin was taken to the Kennebec County jail.

The judge set bail conditions that ban Maalin from leaving Maine and from having contact with the girl and her mother.

He is due in court again at 8:30 a.m. Sept. 15.

Betty Adams — 621-5631

badams@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @betadams


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