When 48-year-old Kenneth Rodger Hardy raped, sodomized and sexually abused a then 15-month-old relative on videotape at his Tooele County home, the crime grabbed headlines and disturbed the surrounding community.
While shocking, the August attack, sans a video camera, is not an isolated incident, and Hardy might never have been prosecuted without film documentation.
According to statistics provided by the Salt Lake Rape Recovery Center's Hospital Response Team, through Dec. 12, last year's most common age of a rape, sodomy or sexual abuse victim was 3 years old. The team also reported seeing five victims that were less than 1 year old.
In total, the response team saw 34 victims that were 3 years old or less during the period.
Salt Lake police sex crimes detectives Heather Stringfellow and Sgt. Don Bell say it's difficult for investigators and prosecutors to build a case against abusers who victimize children younger than 4 years old.
"It basically comes down to how good the child can
perform as a witness," Bell said. "I know that sounds sad, but it really depends on whether the child will be able to sell its story to a judge or jury."
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This year the Salt Lake City Police Department filed two reports for victims younger than 2. One was 12 months old, the other 18 months old.
In many cases small children lack the cognitive skills needed to testify in court or even know what happened to them, Stringfellow said. In some cases police can use forensic evidence to catch sex offenders, but that evidence is also difficult to get because it has to be gathered within a 72-hour time period, forensic nurse examiner Su Bryner-Brown said.
From 1997-99 Salt Lake police records have shown a steady increase in the number of sex crimes perpetrated against children, up from 249 to 361. In that same period the number of adult reports fell from 291 to 216, Bell said.
Police reports, however, cannot tell the whole story when it comes to rape.
Only half of the victims seen at the Salt Lake Rape Recovery Center actually go to police, director of operations Jamee Roberts said.
Moreover, 47 percent of the center's clients were minors. It's the only demographic, besides gender, that experienced a huge disparity when compared to population statistics, Roberts said.
Besides the greater frequency, Roberts said 1999 brought another disturbing trend to the center.
"Usually there's a slowdown during the winter months. I'm concerned that we're seeing more rapes this winter," she said. "It seems like the perpetrators are getting more fearless."
Records from the Scott Matheson Courthouse, which handles all felony sex charges for Salt Lake County, confirm that child rapes are on the rise this winter.
Compared with statistics from December 1998, in December 1999 charges of forcible sodomy, rape and forcible sexual abuse against children went up from 13 to 21.
Bell said the rise in child rape is not because perpetrators are more brazen but comes from better education of both police and the public. Through programs in schools and within the police department, people know more about child sexual assault and are more likely to report it, he said.
"It was really ironic this last year when everybody was saying crime is going down," Stringfellow said. "If that's true then why am I getting more cases than ever?"