Las Vegas man accused of sexually assaulting girl, forcing her to have sex with other children

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A 39-year-old man is accused of sexually assaulting a child and forcing them to have sex with other children, according to documents the 8 News Now Investigators obtained.

Las Vegas Metro police arrested Joshua Aja on 22 charges, including several counts of lewdness with a child and sexual assault against a child, records said.

In October, a child under the age of 10 reported to an adult that a person “made her perform oral sex on him,” documents said. The child then asked Aja for help but Aja also allegedly “began to make her perform oral sex on him” from 2020 until 2023, documents said.

“After a couple of months, [Aja] started to bring [two more children] into the room and would force her to perform oral sex on both boys,” police said.

Aja allegedly threatened the child that he would post pictures and videos “that he had taken of her while the assaults occurred on Facebook,” police said.

During an interview with an official, the child reportedly “disclosed multiple incidents of sexual abuse,” documents said.

According to police, Aja allegedly forced other children to partake in the sexual assaults while he watched. Another child told police that Aja told him “to keep what they did a secret,” documents said.

A third child told police Aja “forced [him] to go in the bedroom with him by threatening to spank him,” documents said. “[The child] disclosed [Aja] would use his cell phone to turn on the camera to watch the front door.”

The alleged assaults ended in May, police said. All of the children knew Aja, but their exact relationship was not disclosed in documents the 8 News Now Investigators received.

Police contacted Aja on Nov. 1 and asked him to come in for an interview, police said.

“[Aja] agreed to come [in to police] … [he] then stated the report must be from [redacted] allegedly he sexually abused [redacted],” police said, noting they did not “advise” Aja “of what the allegations were or who the allegations were about” prior to the interview.

Aja denied the allegations and “claimed he loved the children more than anything in the world and would never harm them,” police said.

“[Aja] then stated, ‘OK, it happened one time,’” police said. “[Aja] then stated [redacted] saw him naked in his chair. [Aja] stated, ‘I had her touch my [redacted] with her hand. I immediately wanted to kill myself afterwards.’ [Aja] was adamant that it only happened one time and only involved [the child] touching his [redacted] with his hand.”

Judge Amy Ferreira denied bail during Aja’s initial appearance on Nov. 5, records showed. Aja remained in custody at the Clark County Detention Center as of Thursday. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for Dec. 11.

Help is available 24/7 for you or a family member by calling the National Sexual Assault Online Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. To report a crime and remain anonymous, call Crime Stoppers at 702-385-5555 or visit crimestoppersofnv.com.

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