LOGAN — A man previously convicted of attempted child sex abuse has been arrested in a child pornography investigation.
Steven Wayne Viator, 38, of Logan, was booked into the Cache County Jail on Monday and charged Tuesday with 20 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony.
Based on a tip from administrators of the Kik app, law enforcers served a search warrant on Viator’s home on Monday.
“A preliminary review of the items seized from the residence revealed a large number —more than 20 images — of sexually explicit images of children,” the affidavit states.
When investigators talked to Viator, he “acknowledged that he has struggled with a sexual attraction to children for his entire adult life,” the affidavit states.
In 2004, Viator was convicted of an amended charge of attempted aggravated sex abuse of a child and was given a suspended prison sentence, according to court records. The victim in that case was 4 years old, according to the affidavit.
On Monday, Viator told police that “despite undergoing sex offender treatment from his previous conviction for a sex offense, Viator has continued to struggle with a sexual attraction to children and did not seek out help, hoping that the problem would just go away,” the affidavit states.
He said he used the Kik app to trade sexually explicit images of children with others, until Kik shut down his account, according to the affidavit. Investigators also located a USB drive with “a large amount of sexually explicit images of children” on it, according to the affidavit,