Charges: Staffer at Utah behavior hospital charged with sexually abusing girl

Charges: Staffer at Utah behavior hospital charged with sexually abusing girl

(James Young, KSL TV)


Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: Less than a minute

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

SALT LAKE CITY — A staff member at a behavior hospital in Orem has been charged with sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl he met at the facility.

Gabriel Michael Lima, 25, of Lehi, was charged Thursday in 3rd District Court with sodomy on a child, a first-degree felony; and enticing a minor, a second-degree felony. Bail was set at $500,000.

In October, a 12-year-old girl reported to police that she befriended Lima during a stay at Provo Canyon Behavioral Hospital, 1350 E. 750 North, according to charging documents. Lima was a staff member at the hospital. The girl stayed at the hospital in September, according to the hospital.

Just days after leaving the hospital, the girl began receiving messages and photos, including at least one explicit picture, from Lima using Snapchat and Xbox messenger, according to the charges.

They then arranged to meet in the south end of Salt Lake County, the charges state, where Lima picked the girl up from a store, took her to a nearby park and forced her to perform a sex act.

The hospital did not immediately respond Thursday when asked for comment.

Most recent Utah stories

Related topics

Utah
Pat Reavy interned with KSL NewsRadio in 1989 and has been a full-time journalist for either KSL NewsRadio, Deseret News or KSL.com since 1991. For the past 25 years, he has worked primarily the cops and courts beat.

STAY IN THE KNOW

Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Newsletter Signup

KSL Weather Forecast

KSL Weather Forecast
Play button