Police charge 76-year-old man with fondling, lewdness

The Tooele County Attorney’s Office has filed charges against a Grantsville man accused of sexually abusing several young girls who attended daycare at his home.

The documents, filed in court Tuesday, allege that Grant McNeill, 76, revealed himself inappropriately to three girls — ages three and four — and asked one of the girls to touch him under his clothing.

The girls were interviewed at the Children’s Justice Center in May 2008. They told investigators that this conduct took place over the course of four months.

One victim reported seeing McNeill ask her friend to pull down her pants, according to a probable cause statement.

The daycare, which is operated by McNeill’s wife Karol, doesn’t have an official business name. Tooele County Attorney Doug Hogan doesn’t know how long the couple had been caring for children in their home.

Although other children were cared for at the home, Hogan said his office doesn’t have any reason to believe they were abused as well.

“We don’t have suspicion that the group is any larger than what we charged,” Hogan said.

McNeill was charged with aggravated sexual abuse of a child and attempted aggravated sexual abuse of a child — both first-degree felonies — and two counts of lewdness involving a child — a class A misdemeanor.

McNeill is not currently incarcerated due to medical needs that could not be provided for at the jail. Instead he is on informal home confinement. The couple no longer have children in the home, Hogan said.

“The threat was to the kids that were bring brought to the daycare, and he is no longer able to have contact with those kids, so we feel the threat has been lowered considerably,” Hogan said.

McNeill will make his first appearance in court on Feb. 10.

Jamie Belnap: jamieb@tooeletranscript.com