Third case filed against St. George man charged with aggravated sexual abuse of child

Stock image, St. George News

ST. GEORGE — Charges mount for a St. George man accused of sexually abusing a 9-year-old while watching the child, one of three cases filed against the suspect since the beginning of the year.

On Monday, 35-year-old Bryce Alan Taylor was arrested shortly before 5 p.m. and transported to Purgatory Correctional Facility facing two first-degree felony counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child. The suspect was released less than two hours later after posting bond on $20,000 bail.

A warrant for the suspect’s arrest was initially issued Oct. 14, following an investigation by the St. George Police Department.

According to the probable cause statement filed in 5th District Court, officers were called in to investigate the suspect after the police department received a call in September reporting that Taylor had inappropriately touched a child and had exposed himself to her on more than one occasion. The incidents took place between 2017 and 2018 when the girl was 9-10 years old.

Officers conducted a forensic interview, during which they learned that Taylor had inappropriately touched the child and forced the girl to do the same to him on multiple occasions. During one incident, the report states, the suspect was attempting to inappropriately touch the girl despite her repeated pleas for him to stop. And when the child got up to leave, the suspect “would not let her go.” Instead, he insisted on driving her home.

Bryce Alan Taylor, 35, of St. George, booking photo taken in Washington County, Utah, OCt. 19, 2020 | Photo courtesy of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, St. George News

Once they pulled up to the house, the suspect allegedly attempted to pay the child by placing money on his exposed genitals. When the girl refused to take the money, a younger child who was also in the vehicle grabbed the cash and attempted to give it to the girl, who again refused and attempted to open the car door.

Before she could do so, the report states, the suspect instructed her not to tell her parents about what happened. When the child said she was going to tell her parents, the suspect allegedly showed her images on his phone of a man lying on the ground or pinned up against a wall either impaled by a pitchfork or having pitchforks thrown at him.

When asked, the child told police officers she did not tell her parents about the ordeal, saying she was “scared and tense — super tense,” the officer noted in the report.

Because Taylor was close to the family and had the child over at his home when the incidents allegedly took place, this placed him in a “position of special trust,” a mitigating factor in the seriousness of the charges, according to authorities.

This is the second similar case filed against the defendant within the last month in Washington County, and one of three cases filed since the beginning of the year.

Bryce Alan Taylor, 35, of St. George, booking photo taken in Washington County, Utah, Sept. 21, 2020 | File photo courtesy of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, St. George News

On Sept. 22, Taylor was arrested following an investigation that began in July when officers were called in on a report that Taylor had inappropriately touched a girl and had exposed himself to her on more than one occasion when the child was at his home. The incidents took place between 2017 and 2018 when the youth was 13-14 years old, according to the probable cause statement filed in 5th District Court.

Taylor was arrested and bail was set at $20,000. The suspect was released shortly after posting bond.

Taylor also faces charges that were filed in Box Elder County in January for first-degree felony aggravated sexual abuse of a child and lewdness involving a child. In that case, the suspect is accused of masturbating while touching an adolescent girl. He is also suspected in a separate incident in which he allegedly acted in a lewd manner against a child under the age of 14.

He made an appearance in Box Elder County on Oct. 5 and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing in that case Nov. 9.

In the current case, the defendant is scheduled to make an initial appearance in 5th District Court on Thursday.

This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2020, all rights reserved.

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