Police: Man locked woman in shed, sexually assaulted her


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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A man has been accused of luring an 18-year-old to a remote cabin, locking her in a shed and sexually assaulting her for weeks, prosecutors in eastern Utah said in court documents filed Monday.

Jared Stephen Morgan, 37, brought the girl to the cabin starting when she was 17, according to authorities in Duchesne County.

The first assault happened after he invited her to come and relax and spend time with his puppies after she broke up with a boyfriend, prosecutors said. When she arrived, she discovered there wasn't an available bed, forcing her to share his, police wrote in court documents.

The Associated Press sought comment from Morgan, but no attorney was immediately listed for him in court records and there was no publicly listed phone number for him.

He was arrested after the woman, now 20, reported the allegations to a private investigator who called police last week, authorities said. The AP generally does not identify victims of sexual crimes.

After the girl turned 18, Morgan created fake paperwork to make her mother think she'd joined the military, police said in court documents.

He told her she'd have to cut ties with her family to be with him, authorities said.

After a fight in June of 2014, he locked her in the shed and forced her to eat rat feces, the documents state.

He armed himself with a gun or a Taser and assaulted her before allowing her to eat during the days he kept her confined in the shed, police said. He let her out sometime in July of 2014 after a brutal assault, and threatened to "end" her if she told anyone what happened, police said.

Morgan has five felony charges that include kidnapping, rape, sodomy and human trafficking. He is being held on $100,000 cash-only bail.

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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