Man Sexually Assaulted 11-Year-Old Girl At North Jersey Flea Market: Prosecutor

HUDSON COUNTY, NJ — A South Jersey man has been arrested for sexually assaulting a girl at a flea market in Hudson County, officials said.

Mamdouh Gattas, 81, of Williamstown in Gloucester County, was arrested Monday at Newark Airport by Port Authority police, said the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office.

He was arrested for sexual assault by contact, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said that the crimes occurred in June 2022 when the victim was 11 years old.

"The victim reported the defendant made inappropriate contact with her at a flea market in Union City," prosecutors said.

According to the police complaint, the girl's parents sold items at a church flea market in that town each week, and the girl and her sibling sometimes helped the man at the next table carry items. According to the complaint, the man would give the children toys when they helped.

According to the complaint, the girl told the man that she liked a necklace he was selling, and suggested he sell it at schools. The suspect then gave her several of them, squeezed her breasts, and said, "Good, good," according to the complaint.

Eventually, the girl told her mother.

Gattas was charged with second-degree sexual assault by contact and third-degree endangering the welfare of a child, prosecutors said.

He was taken to the Hudson County Correctional Facility to await his first court appearance.

Anyone who wants to report a sex crime can call the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office Special Victims Unit at 201-915-1234.