A convicted felon serving time in Corrigan-Radgowski Correctional Center in Uncasville has been charged with having sexual contact with an 11-year-old girl.

Edward Cochran, 37, formerly of Preston, has been charged with two counts each of risk of injury to a child, sexual contact with a minor and first-degree sexual assault.

In September, a public school psychologist in New London reported to the Department of Children and Families that a student may have been sexually assaulted, according to a state police arrest report. The student had met with the psychologist and turned in a handwritten letter from Cochran, including an envelope stamped with the name of and information about the prison. The letter contained numerous sexually explicit statements, the report said.

From the Department of Correction, state police sought and obtained recordings of Cochran’s phone calls between April 10 and Sept. 10, 2018, including two with the alleged victim. In those two calls, Cochran says he wrote a lot of “nasty,” “dirty” and “inappropriate stuff” to the minor and repeatedly instructed her to destroy the letter, according to transcripts included in the report.

An unidentified person in the case, referred to as “Witness 1,” who has custody of the minor, also found a handwritten letter from the girl to Cochran sitting in the girl’s bedroom garbage can. That letter also contained sexually explicit statements, according to the report.

A state trooper and DCF social worker conducted an interview with the minor on Oct. 1. She told them that, starting when she was 9, Cochran inappropriately touched her and had her perform oral sex acts on him, the report said. She also alleged that he had shown her pornography and made her watch it with him.

In an October interview with state police, Cochran denied the allegations that he had inappropriately touched or had sexual contact with the minor, the report said. He told police that he had once caught the girl watching pornography on his cellphone in his bedroom. He said he didn’t know why she says sexual things to him and he was wrong to allow it.

Cochran has an extensive criminal history, including charges of violating a protective order, criminal mischief, breaking and entering, third-degree assault, disorderly conduct and operating under the influence, according to the arrest report, and has been sent to prison three times in Connecticut. He remains incarcerated.