Editor’s note: This story discusses sexual assault. If you need to report or discuss a sexual assault in Utah, you can call the Rape and Sexual Assault Crisis Line at 801-736-4356. The National Sexual Assault Hotline is 800-656-4673.
A Provo couple was charged Monday after their 15-year-old daughter told authorities that her stepfather had been raping her for over a year, according to police documents.
Authorities responded to the girl’s Provo residence Thursday morning, where the girl told paramedics and Provo police officers that her 34-year-old stepfather had raped her the night before, documents state. The Salt Lake Tribune generally does not name alleged victims of sexual assault without their consent, and is not naming the girl’s parents to avoid identifying her.
The girl’s stepfather allegedly admitted to the abuse, and later told investigators that he and his wife — the girl’s 38-year-old mother — abused the girl together, since the couple decided it was “safer” for the girl to experience “sexual things” with them instead of strangers, an officer wrote in police documents.
In an interview with police, the girl’s mother said that she and her husband “approached” the girl with the idea of “having sexual experiences together” over a year ago, documents state. The girl’s mother said she felt they could keep the girl “more safe” if they allowed her to “experiment sexually” with them, according to police documents.
The girl’s mother was employed at Slate Canyon Youth Detention Center in Provo from 2007 to 2022, the Utah employee resource information center confirmed Tuesday.
The couple has four other children together, police documents state. The stepfather told police he is not the girl’s biological father, but married the girl’s mother while she was pregnant, and has raised her as his daughter “since the day she was born.”
The girl’s stepfather was charged with three counts of forcible sodomy, two counts of rape, two counts of forcible sexual abuse and one count of object rape. The girl’s mother faces two counts of sodomy, one count of object rape, one count of forcible sexual abuse and one count of lewdness.
The girl’s mother and stepfather remain in custody at the Utah County Jail. The couple’s next court appearance is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. on March 19.
