Utah pair charged with 29 counts of child abuse, police call it ‘egregious’

MAGNA — A Magna man and woman were charged Thursday with 29 counts of child abuse for punching, kicking, and choking three children 9 years and under, and failing to report the ongoing abuse, according to police. In court documents that describe the alleged abuse, police said the combination of physical and physiological treatment of the children over a long period of time elicited concerns of child torture. Police called the actions of the defendants egregious and concerning.

Sarah Louise Sorensen, 27, and Kristopher Riley North, 34, were charged Wednesday in 3rd District Court with 21 felony counts of aggravated child abuse and eight counts of child abuse, a misdemeanor. Sorensen and Riley have been roommates since November 2018, according to probable cause documents.

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In court documents, police petitioned for pretrial detention and said the defendant was a danger to the community and was likely to flee if released from jail. It said the minor children, in forensic interviews, disclosed the “severe abuse they endured” over six years. Documents say the children reported “numerous instances of strangulation.”

Police investigated a child abuse call on Aug. 21 and spoke with Sorensen, who reported abuse of three children 9 years old and younger. She said North punched, kicked, slapped, and spanked the children. He required them to do pushups as a punishment and were struck if they failed to use “sir” in their response to him.

“In one example, a child described seeing their sibling near death,” police said. Police said medical reports showed that the youngest victim was “presented to the hospital when they were seven months old with bruising on their face.”

During an interview, Sorensen told police that on Aug. 20, North slapped a child multiple times with his right hand and then grabbed the child by the throat with both hands, lifting them off the floor.  The investigating officer found the child had injuries to his ears and neck.

Sorensen also said on another occasion, North punched a different child with a closed fist, and the momentum of the blow made the child fall back and hit their head on the corner of a chair in a living room, knocking the child unconscious. He grabbed the child by the shirt and slapped the child to get them to “come back,” and then hit the child a few more times.

She told police the child “very clearly had a concussion,” wasn’t speaking clearly, could not stand up without assistance, and had strangely dilated pupils. Sorensen said she did not take the child to a hospital but did check to make sure “there wasn’t any signs of, like, internal bleeding at that point” because she was concerned that because of the force of a kick, there could have been some.

She also reported that punches on the children left black eyes and bruises on cheeks and that North pulled out hair from one child’s head, leaving bald spots. Documents state after the interview, Sorensen was read her Miranda rights and then said she was aware of the abuse of the children and did not report it or take the children to receive medical care in a timely manner.

She also had pictures on her phone, spanning years, that documented the injuries to the children, and she had never made a report or tried to leave the home with the children.

Detectives also spoke with North and after being read his rights, spoke with detectives.  He told police on Aug. 21 he demanded pushups and told the child he would spank and “tan his hide” if the pushups weren’t done “the right way.”

North told police he pulled the child’s pants down and spanked him. He told police when he was done spanking him, his bottom “looked bad.” In the investigation that included taking the children to a hospital for treatment, doctors noted injuries on a child’s buttocks were especially concerning and thought it was possible something had been used to cause the injury.

Police wrote in the court documents that there had been a “brutal beating of the buttocks, which resulted in lacerations, bleeding, and severe bruising.”

Strangulation was also also said to be particularly concerning because of how injuries can be serious when not immediately apparent. Police wrote that the actions of both North and Sorensen were “egregious and concerning.”

Police wrote: