diff --git a/core/src/java/org/jdom2/input/sax/SAXBuilderEngine.java b/core/src/java/org/jdom2/input/sax/SAXBuilderEngine.java
index 605cb0e6..d12fe9d8 100644
--- a/core/src/java/org/jdom2/input/sax/SAXBuilderEngine.java
+++ b/core/src/java/org/jdom2/input/sax/SAXBuilderEngine.java
@@ -70,6 +70,7 @@ OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT
 import org.xml.sax.XMLReader;
 
 import org.jdom2.Document;
+import org.jdom2.IllegalDataException;
 import org.jdom2.JDOMException;
 import org.jdom2.JDOMFactory;
 import org.jdom2.input.JDOMParseException;
@@ -235,6 +236,9 @@ public Document build(final InputSource in)
 		} catch (final SAXException e) {
 			throw new JDOMParseException("Error in building: " +
 					e.getMessage(), e, saxHandler.getDocument());
+		} catch (final IllegalDataException e) {
+			throw new JDOMParseException("Error in building: " +
+					e.getMessage(), e, saxHandler.getDocument());
 		} finally {
 			// Explicitly nullify the handler to encourage GC
 			// It's a stack var so this shouldn't be necessary, but it
diff --git a/test/src/java/org/jdom2/test/cases/input/TestSAXBuilder.java b/test/src/java/org/jdom2/test/cases/input/TestSAXBuilder.java
index a484ed3f..c47fadf0 100644
--- a/test/src/java/org/jdom2/test/cases/input/TestSAXBuilder.java
+++ b/test/src/java/org/jdom2/test/cases/input/TestSAXBuilder.java
@@ -101,10 +101,12 @@ OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT
 import org.jdom2.DefaultJDOMFactory;
 import org.jdom2.Document;
 import org.jdom2.EntityRef;
+import org.jdom2.IllegalDataException;
 import org.jdom2.JDOMConstants;
 import org.jdom2.JDOMException;
 import org.jdom2.JDOMFactory;
 import org.jdom2.UncheckedJDOMFactory;
+import org.jdom2.input.JDOMParseException;
 import org.jdom2.input.SAXBuilder;
 import org.jdom2.input.sax.BuilderErrorHandler;
 import org.jdom2.input.sax.SAXEngine;
@@ -1035,6 +1037,19 @@ public void testBuildReader() {
 		}
 	}
 
+	@Test
+	public void testXML11IllegalCharacterIsReportedAsParseException()
+			throws JDOMException, IOException {
+		final String xml = "<?xml version=\"1.1\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>" +
+				"<root>char:&#x05;</root>";
+		try {
+			new SAXBuilder().build(new CharArrayReader(xml.toCharArray()));
+			failNoException(JDOMParseException.class);
+		} catch (final JDOMParseException e) {
+			assertTrue(e.getCause() instanceof IllegalDataException);
+		}
+	}
+
 	@Test
 	public void testBuildReaderString() {
 		char[] chars = testxml.toCharArray();