Man is arrested in explicit Internet chat

PROVO — A sexually explicit Internet chat relationship involving a "teenage girl" ended Thursday when police arrested a medical school student.

The conversation had been ongoing for two years with undercover agents from the Utah County Sex Crimes Task Force posing as a 13-year-old girl, according to an affidavit filed in 4th District Court.

The man, 29, requested sex and sexual favors and tried to arrange to meet several times but was unable because he was in Arizona attending medical school, police say.

On New Year's Eve, the man struck up another chat conversation with the teen.

He indicated he would be in Utah for the holidays before going back to finish medical school and requested to meet, according to the affidavit. However, Jan. 1 came and went, and the man never showed up at the arranged spot.

Officers tracked down the man in Utah and interviewed him, and he admitted to chatting but said he thought she was 16, the affidavit states.

However, details from their most recent chat conversations show that he knew "she" was only 14 and a ninth-grader at Orem Junior High School, according to the affidavit.

The man also admitted sending a picture of his genitals to the "girl" and was booked into the Utah County Jail for investigation of enticing a minor and providing harmful material to a minor. The man bailed out of jail Friday.

— Sara Israelsen-Hartley