Oscar Armando Vargas, 21, of Austin was charged Tuesday with three counts of felony first-degree criminal sexual conduct-penetration of a child under 13 years of age and two counts of felony first-degree criminal sexual conduct-penetration of a child under 16 years of age-significant relationship in Mower County District Court.

According to the court report, officers responded to a call of a sexual assault on a 15-year-old girl at 10:17 p.m. on Friday. The victim told police Vargas had repeatedly assaulted her and that the sexual abuse started when she was six or seven years old.

She told police that Vargas started having intercourse with her when she was 10 or 11, and that he said he would call her “a liar” if she told anyone. She said the last occurrence of abuse was two weeks before the police were called, but he had done it to her “too many (times) to count.”

When the victim disclosed the abuse to her parents, her stepfather confronted Vargas. He told police Vargas was “very nervous” during the confrontation. He said that Vargas may have gone to Marshalltown, Iowa, to a family member’s residence. Marshalltown police located Vargas’s vehicle. They then told Vargas to go back to Austin and surrender, which he did on Saturday.

Vargas told police that he had been having sexual contact with the victim since he was 13 and had started having sex with her five years earlier.

Vargas’s initial court appearance is scheduled for Oct. 16.