LOGAN — A 31-year-old Logan man has been arrested for allegedly molesting a 12-year-old girl in November, according to law enforcement. Mark Spencer Byrnes was booked Friday into the Cache County Jail.
According to booking paperwork, Logan City Police received a report of a sex offense involving a young girl on Nov. 27. The alleged victim claimed Byrnes had inappropriately touched her the night before.
The girl was interviewed several days later at the Cache County Children’s Justice Center. She claimed how Byrnes had come over to her home to visit her father on the night of the incident. He had brought a bottle of alcohol and had been drinking.
The alleged victim described how Byrnes had started touching her underneath her clothing while the two were alone, down in the basement. The girl explained how she told him to stop and ran upstairs to her bedroom, the arrest affidavit described.
Byrnes reportedly followed the girl upstairs, apologizing to her through the bedroom door, saying he was sorry. He then left the house without speaking to anyone else.
The girl allegedly told her parents immediately what happened. Her dad reportedly called Byrnes and confronted him.
The victim’s father told deputies that Byrnes again admitted that he shouldn’t have done what he did and he was sorry.
Investigators later questioned Byrnes. He originally stated that he didn’t remember much about the night of the incident. He claimed how he had been drinking at the time, and also struggles with memory lapses from prior concussions.
As deputies confronted Byrnes further about the allegations, he reportedly said, he didn’t want to talk about it and should get a lawyer.
According to jail records, Byrnes was booked on suspicion of two counts of sexual abuse of a child, a second-degree felony. He is being held without bail, pending arraignment on formal charges in Logan’s 1st District Court.
Individuals arrested and charged in complaints are presumed innocent unless or until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in court.