***Editor's note: This article contains information about the alleged sexual abuse of a child. Detectives have asked that anyone who was a victim of 54-year-old Kevin Sykes of Utah County to contact the sheriff's office at (801) 851-4010.***
If you or someone you know is a victim of sexual abuse, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-4673 or the online chat hotline at rainn.org/resources. In an emergency situation, call 911 immediately.
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SANTAQUIN, Utah — A Utah County man who was charged earlier this month with child pornography possession has been arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing a child over a span of at least four years.
Kevin G. Sykes, a 54-year-old Springville resident, was arrested April 5 after police said they found child pornography on his phone. He was in a youth leadership position at the time, in which he worked with adolescent boys.
Sykes told police that he only sought out computer-animated images and videos, but there were multiple photos of real children being sexually abused found during the search, court documents stated.
Since his arrest, investigators with the Utah County Sheriff's Office Special Victims Unit have learned of multiple incidents of alleged sexual abuse by Sykes.
In one of these cases, the teenage boy told police that Sykes began abusing him at the age of 13, and over a period of 3-4 years, Sykes gave him thousands of dollars to keep quiet about what he was doing. The boy said Sykes had inappropriately touched him more than 100 times, raped him, and physically assaulted him.
Police said Sykes was a "person of trust" to the boy.
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On Monday, police went to the house in Santaquin where Sykes was at the time to arrest him for these new counts. They said he resisted arrest, and his niece, 34-year-old Amanda Freer, also obstructed the arrest by swinging at the officers.
Freer was arrested on two counts of assaulting an officer and one count of obstructing justice, all three of which are class-A misdemeanors. Her bail was set at $2,500.
Sykes was booked for forcible sodomy and human trafficking (both first-degree felonies), as well as sexual abuse of a minor, child abuse involving physical injury, and obstructing justice (all class-A misdemeanors).
Sykes was ordered to be held without bail in this latest arrest.
In his initial arrest earlier this month, he was granted bail at $5,000. Investigators said after he was released, Sykes was seen in public with "an unknown 14-15 year old male."
Detectives said they have also been contacted by two men who reported being victimized by Sykes nearly 30 years ago.
READ: Victim, family share experience with church youth leader arrested for child porn
"Detectives continue to investigate this case and they believe it is very likely that there are others who have been victimized by him. If anyone knows of someone who was victimized by Sykes, please call Detectives at (801)851-4010," a press release from the Utah County Sheriff's Office read.
