This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2010, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A Salt Lake City man who worked in youth services — and spoke of a desire to adopt a baby boy so he could sexually molest the child from birth — has been sentenced to spend nearly six years in federal prison for possessing child pornography.
In addition to the prison sentence, U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart this week ordered 29-year-old Sydney Rhees to serve 25 years of supervised release when he finishes his prison sentence.
Rhees pleaded guilty in July to possessing child pornography. An indictment was returned against him in February.
Rhees, who legally changed his name from Christopher Newman, showed pornography to a man he met on an online dating site in January and told him that he was having sex with two neighborhood boys, ages 5 and 8, according to a federal complaint.
He was arrested after a citizen contacted the Unified Police Department to report that Rhees showed him video of children and infants being sexually abused by men.
Rhees told the citizen he wanted to adopt a baby boy so he could sexually abuse the child from birth, describing the situation as "Utopia," court documents state.
An FBI agent posed as the citizen who contacted police and exchanged text messages with Rhees, which led to his arrest on suspicion of possessing child porn.
Rhees worked with children at a residential treatment facility in West Jordan but was fired after the allegations against him emerged. Rhees had also completed training classes last year offered by the Utah Foster Care Foundation designed to introduce potential candidates to the responsibilities and rigors of being a foster parent.