ROY, Utah, Sept. 16, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — Roy City police responded to a report Sunday that a local man had “accidentally” scratched his daughter, and ended up jailing the man for investigation of second-degree aggravated child abuse, intentionally or knowingly.
Gephardt Daily will not share the name of the man arrested in order to protect the privacy of the alleged victim.
Just after 4 p.m. Sunday, officers responded to a residence after the complainant indicated her adult son had accidently scratched his 3-year-old daughter, “and wanted to know if it needed to be reported or not,” says the affidavit for the man, in his 30s.
“The child had obvious bruising and scratching around her neck and face,” says an affidavit filed by a Roy City Police officer.
“I also observed petechiae on her face and around her eyes. Petechiae is caused by a loss of oxygen in the blood and based on my training and experience, I recognized this as a sign of a potential strangulation.”
The girl’s father told officers the child had made a mess in the bathroom.
He “indicated to myself and detectives in a later interview that he snapped. (He) grabbed the child around the upper chest area to pick her up. When further questioned about her injuries, (he) indicated his hands might have slipped up to her neck when he picked her up on this occasion.”
The man “stated the events were a blur and he was struggling to remember exactly what happened. The child was sent to her room and (the man) indicated he yelled a lot. (He) began trying to clean up the bathroom and went into the child’s room and grabbed her by the back to direct her back to the bathroom to show her what she had done. (He) eventually began to give the child a bath to clean the mess off of her and that’s when he noticed the injuries to her neck and face.”
The man “then called his wife and mother to advise them what he had done and to figure out what to do next,” the police statement says.
Crime Scene Investigation agents arrived to take photographs, and “advised the injuries did not appear consistent with the story, and I agreed,” the affidavit says.
“The injuries on the front of the neck appeared to be of such a nature that it would have occurred from the front and included vertical scratching on the front of the neck. There is bruising visible on the front of the neck and bruising around her eyes and cheeks. The petechiae suggests that the child experienced a loss of oxygen which led me to believe the incident impeded the child’s breathing and/or blood circulation.”
The man was ordered held without bail in the Weber County jail.
