Man with prior sex convictions charged with abuse of a child 10 years ago

An Illinois man faces felony charges for sexually abusing a child when they lived together in Cape Girardeau about 10 years ago, police said.

The Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office charged Eric L. Johnson, 40, of East St. Louis, Illinois, formerly of Cape Girardeau, with first-degree statutory sodomy and first-degree attempted statutory sodomy.

The victim told police Johnson raped her while they were alone in the residence they shared in the 800 block of South Sprigg Street when she was “six or seven” years old, according to a probable-cause statement filed in the case by Cape Girardeau police detective M. Peters.

The victim also told police Johnson tried to force her to engage in a sex act “a couple months prior to the event originally reported,” Peters wrote.

She said Johnson became upset when she resisted, shaking her and yelling at her, according to the statement.

The victim told police the first incident happened shortly before Johnson was arrested for failing to register as a sex offender in February 2007 and the second happened about March 2007, according to the statement.

Johnson pleaded guilty to statutory sodomy in 2008 as part of a plea deal and was sentenced to seven years in prison, according to online court records.

The crime to which Johnson pleaded guilty occurred when he was 21 and his victim was 4, according to the Illinois sex-offender registry.

He also pleaded guilty to third-degree domestic assault in 2001 for assaulting a Cape Girardeau woman, according to online court records.

tgraef@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3627