- William Kremin, 42, was arrested for allegedly photographing children at Vernal City Park.
- He now faces 59 counts of sexual exploitation after police say they found child abuse material on his phone.
- Kremin, a registered sex offender, allegedly admitted obtaining files from online chat sessions.
VERNAL — A Vernal man recently accused of taking pictures of children at the local park is now accused of having child sex abuse material on his phone.
William John Kremin, 42, was arrested on April 6 at the Vernal City Park after witnesses reported that he "was sitting in front of kids watching them and taking photographs of them," a police booking affidavit states. One witness recognized Kremin as a registered sex offender.
When police arrived, officers were "provided with multiple videos and photographs from witnesses depicting William near the playground, holding his phone in a manner consistent with taking photographs. William voluntarily removed his phone from his right-side pocket and showed me and an assisting officer his most recent photographs in which I observed several photographs with children at the park," according to the affidavit.
By being on the Utah Sex Offender Registry, Kremin is not allowed to go to "protected areas" such as parks, day cares, schools or public swimming pools. He was charged on April 14 in 8th District Court with being a sex offender in a protected area, a class A misdemeanor.
On Thursday, however, after investigators obtained warrants and had time to go through his phone, Kremin was arrested again for investigation of 59 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor.
"I located over 700 image files containing what I observed to be child sex abuse material. I also located 59 unique video files containing what I verified to be child sex abuse material," the arresting officer wrote in Kremin's new booking affidavit.
After allegedly finding the explicit materials on his phone, police went to Kremin's residence to question him.
"William acknowledged that there were images and videos of child sex abuse material located on his phone I had searched. He stated he obtained these child sex abuse material files from the online chat site sessions," according to the affidavit. "Furthermore, there were online search engine queries on his phone for (6-year-old children) in swimwear, on the beach and sleeping. This all seems to point to escalating behavior that poses a risk to the children of this community."
Kremin was placed on the sex offender registry in 2018 after being convicted of sexual abuse of a child.
