http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_12993725
Lehi dad accused of sexually abusing daughters
Crime » The girls say they were about 9 and 7 when it began.
By Brandon Dabling
Special To The Tribune
Updated: 08/04/2009 09:32:48 PM MDT
Provo » A 35-year-old Lehi man was arrested Monday for allegedly sexually abusing his two daughters several times a month for at least three years.
The alleged abuse began when the girls were about 9 and 7; the girls are now 17 and 15 years old.
Police said the girls' mother discovered the sexual encounters when the 17-year-old asked if she could have children "if somebody had touched her." Her daughters later told her that their father was the perpetrator and that he had abused the younger daughter as well. They said he had fondled them on numerous occasions, performed oral sex on them and forced them to perform oral sex on him.
According to arresting documents, the 17-year-old told police the abuse began when she was in the third grade and occurred three or four times a month until she was in the sixth grade. The 15-year-old told police her father abused her six or seven times a month until she was 10 or 11 years old.
The girls said their father abused them when their mother was asleep or not at home, and that he told them to keep the encounters a secret, police said.
According to a police affidavit, the Lehi man would not deny or acknowledge the allegations, only saying that he was taking a lot of pain medication during that time and could not remember the sexual abuse.
The man was booked in the Utah County jail Monday for 20 counts of aggravated sodomy on a child and 20 counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child -- both first-degree felonies.
