LOGAN — A 45-year-old New Jersey man has been arrested for allegedly traveling to Cache Valley and raping a 13-year-old girl he had been communicating with online. Paul T. Carroll was booked Saturday into the Cache County Jail, two months after a warrant was issued for his arrest.
According to the arrest affidavit, Logan City Police officers were called to Logan Regional Hospital on April 15, to investigate a child sex abuse report. The young girl had told medical staff, she had been raped by someone she thought was a 26-year-old man that she had met online.
The victim’s mother provided officers with several laptop computers the girl had allegedly used to communicate with the suspect online. The chats, through an app called Say Hi, were sexual in nature and included the man sending the girl a picture and video of his genitals.
Police were able to track the account ID used on the app to an IP address in New Jersey. The user information was tracked to a Paul Carroll of Helmetta, New Jersey.
Logan City police contacted the Jamesburg Police Department in New Jersey and learned that Carroll was a registered sex offender, previously convicted of attempting to meet with a child.
Working with the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, a search warrant was drafted for Carroll’s home. Police found several of the items seen in the background of the photo and video the victim had been sent.
According to jail records, Carroll was booked on one charge of enticing a minor, a second-degree felony; and two counts of dealing in materials harmful to a minor, a third-degree felony. He is being held temporarily without bail, pending arraignment 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.