Cedar City math tutor accused of recording a student in the restroom
Feb 23, 2024, 9:02 PM | Updated: Feb 24, 2024, 1:57 pm
FILE — Handcuffs. (Pixaby)
(Pixaby)
CEDAR CITY — A math tutor in Cedar City was arrested on suspicion of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony; and aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor, a first-degree felony, on Thursday.
Peter Grant Schellenberg, 28, was booked into the Iron County Jail on Thursday night, following an investigation from the Cedar City Police Department.
According to a police affidavit, a female student of Schellenberg’s went to his apartment for a tutoring lesson on Feb. 12. During the lesson, the victim stepped out to use the restroom, and “saw what she believed to be a hand holding a cell phone under the crack of the door.” The victim then described “the movements of the hand and phone as if someone was trying to position the phone to take a picture or video inside the bathroom.”
During this time, there were multiple other people in the apartment, including “Schellenberg’s wife and their two young children,” according to the affidavit.
The victim disclosed this incident to her parents, and the parents went over to confront Schellenberg, the affidavit states.
“When they demanded to see his phone, he did not ask why or seem surprised by the allegations that he had photographed or recorded their daughter in the bathroom,” according to the affidavit.
During the investigation, a search warrant was filed for “any and all electronic devices that may be used to manufacture, create, produce, store, or transfer an electronic image or information,” as well as “any cell phones, computers such as (laptops), external hard drives, thumb drives, and or any other electronic storage devices,” according to the affidavit. This warrant resulted in the seizure of “several laptop computers, many thumb drives and four cell phones.”
Schellenberg was then asked for an interview with the police, during which he “stated that he did take a video under (the) bathroom door,” as well as “that he has an addiction to pornography since he was a teenager.”
If you have experienced sexual violence, you can access help and resources by calling Utah’s 24-hour Sexual Violence Help Line at 1-801-736-4356 (English) or 1-801-924-0860 (Spanish). You can also call the Rape Recovery Center office line during office hours at 801-467-7282 or the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 for free, confidential counseling.
