FARMINGTON -- A 33-year-old Bountiful man, currently serving a federal prison sentence for production of child pornography, is now accused, in connection with the same case, of sexually molesting an 8-year-old girl for more than a year while he was her baby sitter.
Brian Craig Christensen appeared in 2nd District Court on Thursday. The Attorney General's Office charged Christensen with five counts of object rape of a child and three counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, all first-degree felonies.
Christensen is being held in Davis County Jail on his federal conviction of production of child pornography until the state's case is resolved.
His public defender, Julie George, said she believes there will be a resolution to the case.
Judge Thomas L. Kay set Oct. 27 for a hearing, when Christensen could enter a plea to one or all of the charges.
A conviction of object rape of a child carries a mandatory sentence of 25 years to life in Utah State Prison. A conviction of aggravated sexual abuse of a child carries a mandatory sentence of either six years to life, 10 years to life or 15 years to life in prison.
According to 2nd District Court documents, an officer with the Utah Internet Crimes Task Force interviewed the girl's mother in 2009. She told officers that she and Christensen had been friends for several years and he had been her daughter's baby sitter numerous times. Over several months, Christensen occasionally kept the girl overnight when he baby-sat her.
The girl refused to go with him one time, and the mother questioned the girl, according to the documents. The girl told her mother that Christensen had touched her inappropriately and had also filmed her without clothes.
Officers served a search warrant on Christensen in December 2009, and at that time, he admitted to touching the girl inappropriately, as well as taking photographs of her.
According to the court documents, Christensen's computer was seized and taken to the Intermountain West Regional Computer Forensics Lap, where several hundred images and videos of the young girl being sexually abused were found.
Christensen had pleaded guilty to the federal charge April 12, 2010, and is serving a 16.5-year sentence in a federal prison.
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