A 22-year-old staff member associated with a residential treatment center for minors in southern Utah, was arrested and charged with rape and sexual abuse of teenage students who went to school there.

Last week, Paul Anthony Nichols was arrested following a month-long sexual abuse investigation. During separate interviews taken on October 20, two of the victims who attend Lava Heights Academy in Toquerville, Utah, told the police that Nichols had touched them inappropriately a few days after he began working at the school.

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The alleged abuse happened during a “truth-or-dare” game in mid-September. His first alleged victim was a 15-year-old girl who said that she and two other students were playing truth or dare one night when Nichols joined them. During the game, one of the “dares” was for Nichols to kiss all three of them. The victim said that the accused followed her to the bathroom after she went in and began kissing her. She said that she initially consented to being kissed, adding that Nichols then groped her while they were “making out.”

The teen victim confessed that the same incident was repeated four more times on different nights in the bathroom of the residential treatment center. Every time, the alleged abuse became more serious as she was forced to touch Nichols inappropriately and he also touched her in increasingly inappropriate ways. In the fifth instance, the teenager said that Nichols briefly had intercourse with her.

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The teen said that on a separate occasion, Nichols was in her dorm room and told her to take her clothes off and pose nude while he took photos with his cell phone. Another victim has also accused Nichols of similar crimes, saying that he had groped her while they kissed in the bathroom as part of the “dare, which happened twice.

Who is Paul Anthony Nichols?

Paul Anthony Nichols is 22 years old and a resident of St. George. on Thursday, he was charged and interviewed by the police, He has admitted to the accusations levied by the teens against him. He was booked into the Washington County Jail that same day On Friday, he was ordered by a judge to be held without bail.

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According to the prosecutors, Nichols held a “special position of trust” over the female residents at Lava Heights, which calls itself a “residential treatment center for troubled teens. The alleged abuse took place while he was supervising them.

Nichols has been charged in Utah’s Fifth District Court with eight separate felonies. It includes one count of rape, five counts of forcible sexual abuse, and two counts of sexually exploiting a minor.