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SPRINGVILLE — A Springville man who police say was a youth leader at his church is now accused of possessing child pornography.
Kevin G. Sykes, 54, was charged Monday in 4th District Court with four counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony.
The investigation began on March 29 when Sykes' boss contacted the Utah County Sheriff's Office to report he had found suspected child pornography on an employee's phone. When deputies questioned Sykes about it, he told them "the images were 3D art, and not images of real children" though he did not deny the images were sexually explicit, according to charging documents.
Investigators seized Sykes' phone and conducted a more extensive search. That's when they found disturbing search terms in his internet browser history such as "human trafficking in Utah County of boys," the charges state.
"Officers also located four saved images of actual (child pornography) that were not computer animated," according to the charges.
When he was reinterviewed by detectives on April 5 and asked how the images got on his phone, Sykes stated "he could have forgotten about them because he saves images 'for the thrill of the catch,' then never goes back to look at them" and that he "probably 'did not realize they were not computer animated,'" the charges state.
The 3D images depicted boys between the ages of 8 and 16, according to a police booking affidavit, and Sykes "has a position in his church where he works with young men and boys in the same age range as those depicted in the pictures found on his phone," the sheriff's office said in a prepared statement.
