A Utah County man working as a youth advisor in his local church was arrested on Tuesday after child pornography was discovered on his cell phone.
Evidence was first discovered on the phone of Springville resident 54-year-old Kevin G. Sykes while he was being helped by an acquaintance. The witness discovered an image of child pornography on an internet browser and reported it to police, who proceeded to contact and interview Sykes.
Sykes claims that the images on his phone were 3D art and didn’t portray any real victims as he didn’t have any interest in pornography containing real children. He did admit that the images were graphic and depicted “young boys,” which proved to be quite concerning because his role as a youth advisor allowed him to work with boys aged 11-14. Sykes, however, claims that he has never been alone with any of those boys and hasn’t had any attraction or contact towards them.
After Sykes consented to a search of his phone, investigators reportedly found several computer-animated images of pornography depicting young boys being sexually assaulted by other children or adults. On top of that, police also found real, non-animated images of child pornography with male and female victims between the ages of 8 and 16 years old. Police also discovered that Sykes had searched for explicit images of children.
Sykes was booked on four second-degree felony charges of sexual exploitations of a minor.
