Senator Shamp Demands Immediate Overhaul After Level 2 Sex Offender Allegedly Enters School, Sexually Assaults 10-Year-Old Girl

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Friday, November 21, 2025

Senator Shamp Demands Immediate Overhaul After Level 2 Sex Offender

Allegedly Enters School, Sexually Assaults 10-Year-Old Girl

PHOENIX, ARIZONA—Senator Janae Shamp is expressing outrage over a catastrophic system failure that allegedly allowed a registered sex offender—who repeatedly violated probation—to walk onto a school campus and sexually assault a 10-year-old girl.

According to Phoenix Police and court documents, 25-year-old Abel Gblah, a Level 2 sex offender on lifetime probation, trailed behind a student being buzzed into Orangewood Elementary School. He is alleged to have falsely claimed to be a doctor, gained access to the campus, and then led a 10-year-old girl into an empty classroom where he sexually assaulted her.

According to media reports, Gblah's history reveals a long pattern of violations and missed intervention opportunities including multiple missed probation check-ins, unauthorized smartphone use, viewing pornography, lying about contact with minors, violating a protection order, leaving Arizona without permission, being arrested in Miami and jailed, missing 22 sex-offender treatment classes, being discharged from treatment, receiving a highest-risk intervention assessment, and being released from jail just ten days prior to the assault. Despite this pattern, he repeatedly received "slap-on-the-wrist" consequences—leaving him free to access a school and harm a child.

This case comes after Senator Shamp successfully championed several major child-protection laws signed into law over the past two sessions:

• SB 1232 — Classifies sexual conduct with a minor 12 or younger resulting in serious physical injury as a Class 1 felony, punishable by natural life imprisonment.

• SB 1236 — Requires additional Level 1 sex offenders convicted of Dangerous Crimes Against Children (DCAC) to be listed publicly on the state sex offender website.

• SB 1404 — Requires schools to be notified when a parent at that school is a registered sex offender convicted of a DCAC.

These laws have strengthened Arizona's approach to sex offenders—yet the Orangewood case exposes dangerous gaps that must be closed.

"I am beyond angry and disgusted about what has been reported. That 10-year-old girl's life will never be normal now. This is such a system failure. A dangerous predator with a long list of violations was allowed to roam free because the system refused to take his risk seriously," said Senator Shamp. "I have passed some of the strongest laws in America against child predators, but this tragedy proves more work must be done immediately. I will pursue every legislative solution necessary to fix these failures and ensure no high-risk offender ever slips through the cracks again."

"This alarming incident highlights the deeply troubling reality of a convicted sex offender repeatedly violating probation and entering a school environment, placing our most vulnerable children at risk," said Beth Goulden, Chair of the Arizona Sex Offender Management Board. "We must return to rigorous supervision, swift interventions, and proactive protections to ensure these violations never give offenders access to potential victims. When systems fail to monitor and sanction those who violate probation, the public – and particularly children – bear the consequences."

"The holistic failure is unacceptable and completely disturbing. This could have been prevented and should have never happened. Arizona must immediately address the breakdowns that allowed this offender to remain in the community," said victim rights advocate Kayleigh Kozak. "Arizona is still relying on a risk assessment tool that hasn't been updated since 2002 — an assessment done by Probation that is clearly not working. On top of that, the state is missing the mark on most of the national standards for how sex offenders are supposed to be tracked and monitored, leaving dangerous gaps in supervision and accountability. These failures allowed a high-risk offender to remain in the community, and our children are paying the price."

In the 2026 legislative session, Senator Shamp will be exploring reforms to strengthen mandatory consequences for repeated probation violations, increase oversight of probation and treatment providers, require immediate intervention for high-risk assessments, improve notification systems for schools and parents, and close loopholes that allow offenders to avoid accountability.

"Arizona's children deserve protection—not a system that repeatedly ignores red flags. I am committed to fixing this promptly." said Senator Shamp. "I have made it my mission to protect children from vile and heinous crimes, and what has been reported shows why this effort is so important."