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SALT LAKE CITY — A man who was hired as a babysitter two years ago has now been charged with sexually abusing the boy in his care.
Osama Alamri, 27, of Salt Lake City, was charged Thursday in 3rd District Court with four counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, a first-degree felony; and lewdness involving a child, a class A misdemeanor.
Bail was set at a high $500,000 cash only. Prosecutors indicate in charging documents that Alamri, who is from Saudi Arabia, has a visa set to expire in a week and that if he is able to make bail, that he may be forced to surrender his passport.
In 2017, the victim’s family said they found Alamri on care.com, which advertises itself on its website as “the world’s largest online family care platform.” He was hired as a babysitter for the family.
Earlier this month, the boy’s mother reported to police that her 4-year-old son was having pain in his genitals and “aggressive behavioral issues.” The boy disclosed that since at least July, Alamri had been “touching” him, according to charging documents.
“It hurted bad. ... It felt like being chomped up by a wolf and I was sad,” the boy told police about Alamri allegedly touching his genitals, the charges state.
Alamri was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on Aug. 9.
According to care.com’s website, the company began “rolling out an enhanced caregiver screening” as of July.
The new screening includes a check on the National Sex Offender website and other federal and county criminal background checks. However, the company cautioned that, while it was in the process of applying its enhanced screening on all people active in its database, “not all caregivers on Care.com are background checked today. However, we expect a significant majority of caregivers that families can connect with on our service will have been (checked) by the end of 2019 and we ask for your patience as we work to complete this change.”
