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ROY — A registered sex offender was charged Monday with grabbing a 10-year-old girl by the neck with the intention of abducting and sexually assaulting her.
Richard Rodney Palmer, 44, is charged in 2nd District Court with child kidnapping and attempted rape of a child, both first-degree felonies.
Just before 9 p.m. Friday, a 10-year-old girl was at a Roy gas station, 4395 S. 1900 West, to get a treat. She told police she noticed a man, who police later identified as Palmer, in the store and that he "made her not feel good," according to charging documents.
When the girl left the gas station, she noticed Palmer outside. He was "pacing and it made her feel even worse," the charges state.
Palmer walked along 4400 South. The girl stayed behind him until she saw an opportunity to pass him. When she attempted to ride her bicycle around Palmer, he "grabbed her around the neck. She screamed and yelled and held the bicycle and the male eventually let her go," according to the charges.
The girl rode home and told her mother what had happened. Roy police reviewed video recorded by security cameras at the gas station. They reported observing Palmer pacing in the parking lot.
"As the victim leaves the store, the male walks in front of her. I could see her stop her bicycle and put both feet down from her bicycle when she sees the male start walking in front of her. She said she was trying to let him get further in front of (her)," the officer noted in the charges.
While that officer was looking at the surveillance video, the same car that Palmer was seen getting into earlier returned to the gas station and a man entered the store and then left. The officer pulled up the new surveillance video and was able to read the car's license plate.
Detectives traced the car to an address that a police sergeant recognized from a previous sexual assault investigation, according to the charging documents.
When Palmer arrived at the house he was questioned by police. He admitted that the girl caught his attention "and that he was attracted to her. When he left the store, he saw the girl leave. He said that he grabbed the girl and planned to take her behind a nearby vacant house and have sex with her," the charges state.
Palmer was convicted of unlawful sexual activity with a minor in 2007 and was sentenced to up to five years in the Utah State Prison, according to court records. He was convicted of the same crime, which was amended to a reduced class A misdemeanor, in 1998, court records state
