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Authorities in Tooele have issued an arrest warrant for a man accused of viciously beating a 12-year-old boy and sexually assaulting his younger sister. Today, we spoke with a relative of the victims.
KSL News has decided not to identify anyone involved except the suspect because of the alleged sexual assault on an 11-year-old girl. The relative, who is now providing a temporary home for the children, says he was so shocked by the boy's injuries he almost fainted.
The incident happened in a Tooele trailer park almost two weeks ago. A man allegedly began beating a 12-year-old boy in his household and trying to persuade his 11-year-old sister to have sex.
"It's horrible. We've gone through buckets of tears for them," the relative told us.
This relative says he was called to the Tooele police station to retrieve the kids. Later, at the Children's Justice Center, the injured boy and his sister told their story to Division of Child and Family Services workers.
"She's their hero because she said no all night long, no matter what, no matter what type of bribe she was given, whether he pushed himself on top of her. He told her that if she fell asleep at anytime during the night, he'd kill her or she'd wake up and her brothers and sisters would be dead," the relative said.
He says the children told investigators the man tormented them for 10 hours, at one point holding a samurai sword to the girl's throat and threatening to kill her. He says the boy was beaten so severely that when nurses saw him, they cried.
"It would go on for a bit: kick, beat, stomp on his chest, stop. [He'd] walk around the house, I guess, and then come back and do it some more. He was literally his punching bag all night long," the relative said.
When the man fell asleep, the children escaped by calling their mother, who lived elsewhere.
Tooele police are looking for Willie Phillips. He's accused of aggravated assault, aggravated sex abuse of a child and aggravated sodomy. "We really want him caught really, really bad. These little kids are having really bad nightmares about him coming and doing really bad things to them," the relative said.
The state placed the children in that relative's home along with some other closely-related children. Their own mother has visitation rights but does not live with them.
Meanwhile, police say they're optimistic about making an arrest. If you have any information that could help them, call the Tooele City Police Department at 435-882-5600.
E-mail: jhollenhorst@ksl.com
