By Ben Winslow
Deseret Morning News
CEDAR CITY, Utah — Police investigating a case of child sex abuse discovered an intricate video surveillance system inside and outside of the arrested man’s Cedar City home.
“He had set up a video camera in the house,” Cedar City police Sgt. Jerry Womack said Wednesday. “He had other cameras that were surveillance cameras at the house to see who is coming and going.”
The investigation began in March when a woman -- now 18 -- went to police and said she had been molested from the time she was in the 5th grade until she was in the 8th grade.
“She said he had taken inappropriate pictures of her and also videotaped her,” Womack said.
Police served a search warrant on the man’s home and seized a computer. Recently, forensic tests came back revealing provocative pictures and video files of people inside and outside the home.
It was then that police discovered the hidden video cameras in the victim’s bedroom and in the dining room. Investigators said the cameras may have been set up to catch the victim in stages of undress.
The hidden cameras were tied into the professional surveillance system outside, police said.
“He was questioned. His explanation was that he was using it to see what was going on in the home,” Womack said.
Police do not believe any of the images were published on the Internet. The 43-year-old man was booked into the Iron County Jail for investigation of first-degree felony child sex abuse and lewdness, a class B misdemeanor.
The Deseret Morning News is not publishing the man’s name to avoid identifying the alleged victim.
Copyright 2007 The Deseret News Publishing Co.