A Georgia teen is being charged as an adult for allegedly brutally raping a 15-year-old classmate inside the bathroom of a Powder Springs high school.
Malachi Mpata, 16, was nabbed after he pushed the girl against a wall, grabbed her by the throat and demanded that she perform sex acts on him, an arrest warrant said.
He also slapped the girl and hurled insults at her during the assault, which happened after school hours at McEachern High School, according to the warrant obtained by DailyMail.com.
The girl was then taken to the boys’ bathroom where she was raped as her attacker wrapped his hand around her neck, the warrant said.
Mpata was arrested December 7 by Cobb County Police Department’s special victims unit in connection with the November 17 assault.
He’s facing rape and sodomy charges.
The Cobb County School District said in a statement indicating it ‘immediately reported’ the assault to police and said it would not comment further on the case to protect the girl’s privacy.
Citing privacy laws, the school declined to comment further on the case.
A woman who lives across the street from Mpata said she was floored to learn of the arrest.
‘I just honestly, I’m shocked,’ Sarah Dell told CBS46. ‘I just can’t believe what he’s being accused of.. He watches the kids without his mother even asking.
‘I’ve seen him around children, he’s been in my house. I mean he’s going to school and said he wants to be a doctor. It’s just stunning.’
Powder Springs, with a population of about 15,000 people, is 22 miles outside Atlanta.
It’s the second time in recent months that the Cobb County School District – which serves nearly 113,000 students – has been rocked by sex crime charges.
Last month, cops charged 29-year-old Zachary White with two counts of sexual assault by a teacher after he allegedly had sex with a student inside his Osborne High School office, Fox News reported.
The case prompted school principal Joshua Morreale to address the issue in an online statement.
‘The safety and wellbeing of our students continues to be the most important thing to me as your principal,’ he said. We are cooperating fully with the Cobb County police, are conducting a thorough internal investigation, and have no reason to believe these allegations threaten any other Osborne students.
‘Effective immediately, the teacher will not be allowed on campus as the investigation continues.’
