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SALT LAKE CITY — A man who prosecutors say molested two girls he was babysitting while their mother was undergoing chemotherapy was charged on Thursday.
Michael W. Fritchen, 64, of North Salt Lake, was charged in 2nd District Court with two counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, a first-degree felony.
In 2014, Fritchen offered to babysit the children of a woman who was undergoing chemo treatment, according to charging documents. Sometimes the children would spend the night, the charges state.
One girl, who was 7 at the time, said Frtichen would inappropriately touch her, according to charging documents.
“(The girl’s) sister remembered the defendant taking videos of the children in the bathtub and telling them not to tell anyone,” the charges state.
Another girl, who was a friend of the 7-year-old, would sometimes go with the sisters to Fritchen’s house. She told police that she was also inappropriately touched, according to the charges. The second girl was 10 at the time.
“She remembered the defendant taking pictures of the girls standing up in the bathtub with no clothes on,” according to the charges.
Thursday’s charges come on the heels of charges being filed against Fritchen in January.
In that case, he was charged in 2nd District Court with 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony, after the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force found over 13,000 images of child porn images on his computer, according to a police affidavit.
In 1998, Fritchen was convicted of sodomy of a child, and in 2011 an amended charge of attempted failure to register as a sex offender.
“On or about April 13, 1993 (Fritchen) was sentenced to 10 years confinement. (He) was also discharged from the military. (Fritchen) was later incarcerated at Leavenworth, Kansas, and the Federal Correctional Institution in Sandstone, Minnesota. (He) was released from confinement in 2000,” the affidavit states.
