LOGAN — A 45-year-old New Jersey man is headed to prison for sexting with a Logan girl last spring. Paul T. Carroll was originally booked into the Cache County Jail on Dec. 14, two months after a warrant was issued for his arrest.
According to court records, Carroll was sentenced June 4 in Logan’s 1st District Court. He previously accepted a plea deal, pleading guilty to criminal solicitation of a minor, amended to a second-degree felony.
According to prosecutors, Logan City Police officers were called to Logan Regional Hospital on April 15, 2024, 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 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 trace 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.
Previously it was reported that Carroll had traveled to Logan to have sex with the victim. However, prosecutors later clarified that the victim was allegedly raped by another individual, and Carroll only communicated with the young girl online.
During last Wednesday’s sentencing, Judge Brian Cannell ordered Carroll to serve an indeterminate term of at least one year and not more than 20 years in the Utah State Correctional Facility.