Sex offender arrested after allegedly trying to open car door with children inside
May 17, 2024, 3:39 PM | Updated: 7:08 pm
TAYLORSVILLE — A registered sex offender, who has already been arrested multiple times this month, was arrested again Friday after police say he tried to open a car door with three children inside.
Charles Adam Bascomb, 43, was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of two counts of attempted child kidnapping, attempted kidnapping, two counts of being a sex offender in the presence of a child and failing to register as a sex offender.
About 9:45 a.m. Friday, Taylorsville police were called to a suspicious circumstance near 5700 S. Redwood Road. According to a woman who police met at the scene, “Charles Bascomb was pulling on the door handles of her car while looking in the windows where her three children were. (She) said she went outside when she saw this and Charles began to immediately walk away. (She) told (the officer) she believed he was trying to get her children,” according to a police booking affidavit.
The children were ages 15, nine and an infant.
Officers learned that Bascomb was a noncompliant sex offender who had already been arrested on May 1 and May 6 for failing to register with the Utah Sex Offender and Kidnap Registry, as required as part of his 2009 conviction for sex abuse of a child. He had just been released from the Salt Lake County Jail that morning, according to the affidavit.
“Charles is also required to stay away from children as part of his terms as a sexual offender,” officers noted in the affidavit.
Bascomb allegedly told police that he “wasn’t trying to get the children,” the affidavit states. But based on the circumstances, officers believe that “Charles was attempting to get the children and that was his motive for attempting to get into the vehicle,” the affidavit states.
Police also stated that based on Bascomb’s recent arrests, his “behavior is escalating to the point he was trying to get into a car with unattended children.”
On May 1, he was arrested for investigation of failing to register as a sex offender. At the time of that arrest, Salt Lake City police noted in their booking affidavit that Bascomb was living in a group home “where he has made concerning claims to members of the staff including that one is supposed to have his child. … Staff also advised that Bascomb is hallucinating and making statements that things are not real.”
Five days later, he was arrested again for investigation of disorderly conduct and two more counts of failing to register as a sex offender. A police booking affidavit states he was again causing problems at the group home and was “making staff feel unsafe and uncomfortable.”
