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SANDY — Kidnapping and rape charges have been filed against a Sandy man who police say wouldn't allow his girlfriend or her son to leave her house for four or five days.
The woman was rescued by police after one of her Facebook friends saw her post on Christmas Eve asking for help.
Troy Reed Critchfield, 33, was charged Tuesday with one count of aggravated kidnapping, four counts of forcible sodomy, and single counts of object rape and rape, all first-degree felonies.
Critchfield also faces two counts each of aggravated assault, a second-degree felony, and domestic violence in the presence of a child, a third-degree felony. In addition, he was charged with single counts of child abuse and cruelty to animals, both class B misdemeanors.
Police said the animal cruelty charge was field because Critchfield would not allow the woman to feed her dog during the ordeal.
He is being held in the Salt Lake County Jail on $1 million bail.
On Christmas Eve, the woman posted a message on Facebook that said, "I am having a serious problem, and me and (my son) will be dead by morning."
Facebook friends alerted Sandy police, who were able to rescue the woman and her son. Police said Critchfield held the woman and her son in a Sandy home for as many as five days and physically assaulted her every time she tried to leave.
Critchfield had taken away the woman's phone, but she was able to sneak a computer into a closet and post the message from there.
When police went to the house, Critchfield initially refused to allow them to see his girlfriend. A Salt Lake County Jail report says the woman shook her head to indicate "no" when officers asked if she was OK.
After police separated the couple, the woman told officers she and her child had not been allowed to leave the home and that she repeatedly had been hit, choked and sexually abused over a period of nearly five days.
Jail records show the woman also claimed Critchfield had taken her cell phone and the phone of a disabled child also in the home.
A year ago, Critchfield was arrested by a Salt Lake City SWAT team in a similar kidnapping incident involving the same victim. He pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and obstruction of justice charges. A judge sentenced Critchfield to a prison term of five years but suspended the punishment for a 120-day jail term and three years of probation.
Email:jpage@ksl.com
