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TAYLORSVILLE, Utah (AP) -- Up to six family members are implicated in a three-generation sex-abuse ring, according to investigators and court documents.
The 60-year-old grandfather was charged last week with two counts of aggravated sex abuse of a child, two counts of sodomy on a child, sexual exploitation of a minor and aggravated assault.
Court documents alleges grandchildren were victims and some of them also were perpetrators.
"When the children were asked how many times sexual acts had been perpetrated against them either by the defendant or grandchildren living in the home, they reported 'thousands of times,"' the documents said.
Three grandchildren were placed into state protective custody. Four grandchildren and one of the grandfather's adult sons have been or are going to be charged with sexual offenses while at the same time undergoing "treatment for sexual predation of sexual reactivity, caused by the incestuous sexual abuse that has occurred at the defendant's premises over the past five or more years," according to the court documents.
Taylorsville police served a search warrant at the home on Dec. 20.
"The conditions of the home were so bad that we called the health department. We were required to wear (protective) suits in the home for contamination," police Sgt. Rosie Rivera said.
It wasn't until officers removed the grandchildren from the house that investigators learned the full extent of the alleged abuse, which Rivera said had been happening for years.
"Now (the grandchildren) feel safe and they are coming forward," she said.
The man allegedly threatened to cut one of his grandchildren "like a carrot" if she told police or her schoolteachers what was happening, court documents stated.
That girl apparently did suffer a stab wound at one point.
"That wound went untreated, even though it should have been sutured, and even after school officials told her mother," the documents said.
The mother told the school and the Division of Child and Family Services that her daughter had accidentally sat on a knife, the documents said.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
