Utah County Man Accused Of ‘Daring’ Children To Remove Clothes
Aug 11, 2019, 5:01 PM | Updated: Aug 12, 2019, 1:10 am
OREM, Utah – A Utah County man has been arrested following accusations of child sexual abuse of at least two children during “dares” and “challenges.”
A family member of the victims, who asked to remain anonymous, spoke out in hopes of helping identify other potential victims.
“I mean, we’re still in shock… it’s surreal. He just seemed like there wasn’t a more trustworthy person,” a family member close to the victims told KSL.
The family member shared how the accused 30-year-old, Lincoln Gygi, gained her family’s trust while they were living in the same area.
“There were a couple of times that the kids went to church with him,” she said. “(Then) we started feeling weird about him buying the kids gifts and candy and stuff like that, more and more frequently. He got a really expensive gift for one of the kids and they had kept it a secret.”
Gygi was booked into Utah County Jail on 15 charges, including suspicion of aggravated sexual abuse of a child and lewdness involving a child.
According to a probable cause statement, dated August 8, Gygi told detectives that he engaged the children in “‘dares’ or ‘challenges’ which involved all of them taking off their clothes and running around naked.”
Detectives said Gygi told them that these incidents “occurred between 10 and 20 times.”
“That we trusted him so much and he used that as a way of carrying out these really perverted games, is just really haunting,” the victim’s family member said.
The so-called “games” included allegations of lying down naked with the children and touching their private parts.
The two children reported the abuse to their parents about a month ago. They alleged it occurred about three years ago.
According to the probable cause statement, “Lincoln estimated the abuse with [child 1] and [child 2] went on for approximately one year.”
Investigators said they suspect there may be more victims. During the interview with detectives, they said Gygi admitted that another child was present during one of the incidents. Police were in the process of interviewing the potential victim.
In the meantime, the children’s family member hoped that sharing her experience will empower other parents to have these hard conversations with their kids.
“It has to be an on-going dialogue with kids and they need to know that secrets are never appropriate,” she said.
Parents whose children may have interacted with Lincoln Gygi, especially if the kids spent time alone with him, to contact the Orem Police Department.
