9/15/2022
New allegations of sex abuse leveled against former Utah child crimes prosecutor.
A former child crimes prosecutor who was arrested last month on child pornography charges is back in jail.
Gary Lee Bell, 66, of Spanish Fork, is being held in the Utah County Jail on charges of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, sodomy on a child, and 12 counts of sexual exploitation of a child.
Investigators allege they uncovered evidence he had actually sexually abused an infant.
Detectives from the Utah County Sheriff’s Office arrested Bell at his home last month after a cyber tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children linked his IP address to sexually explicit images of children that were uploaded in May, according to court records.
At that time, Bell was booked on six counts of sexual exploitation of a minor.
Investigators expressed concern in an arrest affidavit that Bell had access to young children at his home where he frequently took care of his grandchildren.
Earlier this month, a judge authorized Bell to be released from custody with an ankle monitor and conditions that he not have any contact with anyone under the age of 18, not go anywhere that children may congregate, and not access the internet.
Detectives, meanwhile, began to look through electronics they had seized from Bell’s home when they executed the original warrant for child pornography.
According to a newly released arrest report, a detective found images of an adult male sexually abusing a child under 2 years old on Bell’s phone.
“I recognized the background of the photos as looking like the front room of [Bell’s home] . I accessed crime scene photos taken the day of the warrant service and found a photo of the front room and determined this was the same room in the child sex abuse material photo. The couch in both photos is the same as well as the carpet,” a detective wrote in an affidavit.
Detectives from the Utah County Sheriff’s Office responded back out to Bell’s home on Tuesday and arrested him on new charges of aggravated sexual abuse of a child and sodomy of a child.
Bell retired in 2020 from the Utah Attorney General’s Office where he worked as prosecutor in the Child Protection Division.
He was booked back into jail and is being held without bail, according to jail records.
“While en route to the jail, Gary stated he thought the photos and videos were erased because he was disgusted with himself over them,” the arrest affidavit states.
“I feel that due to the nature of the crime, Gary is a danger to the grandchildren,” a detective wrote in an August arrest report.
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