Child protection prosecutor arrested for child porn

SPANISH FORK, Utah — A former prosecutor in the Attorney General’s Office is now the subject of a child porn investigation. Police in Spanish Fork arrested 66-year-old Gary Lee Bell for investigation of six counts of sexual exploitation of a minor.

Arrest records show Bell is a retired assistant attorney general that worked in the Child Protection Division. That means he was actually in charge of prosecuting crimes against children.

Sergeant Spencer Cannon with the Utah County Sheriff’s Department got a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children earlier this month.

That tip said that suspected child pornography of children under the age of 10 was being uploaded on a social media app.

“its bad when anyone gets involved in this kind of stuff,” said Sergeant Cannon. “But it seems especially disappointing given the nature of the work that Mr. Bell was involved in…fighting against the very thing he was involved in doing” 

Police requested that Bell be held without bail in the Utah County Jail until they file the criminal charges and also because according to the affidavit, young children often visit his house.