Thomas A. Ott, a Cape Henlopen paraprofessional and the head football coach, is charged with several counts of rape and other charges.

Police say Lewes man had been abusing teenage girl since 2006

The head football coach at Cape Henlopen High School was arrested Thursday night and charged with raping a teenage girl, police said.

Thomas A. Ott, 39, of Lewes, was charged with four counts each of second-degree rape and unlawful sexual contact, two counts of fourth-degree rape, and one count each of continuous sexual abuse of a child and unlawful imprisonment, said state police spokesman Sgt. Walter Newton.

According to court records, the victim’s brother called for help Thursday after hearing his sister screaming in the basement of a Lewes home.

Police say the abuse had been continuous since 2006.

Arriving troopers found the girl in a “hysterical state” with residue of duct tape around her wrists from where Ott allegedly had “taped her hands above her head and taped them together around a pole” before sexually assaulting her, police said in court records.

Cape Henlopen Superintendent George Stone said that to his knowledge no adult in the district had any knowledge of problems with Ott or the victim.

Ott, a paraprofessional in the Cape Henlopen School District who worked with special education students, has been suspended with pay, he said, adding that the school district plans to launch an internal investigation.

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