Bountiful doctor charged with sexually abusing young girls, having child porn on hospital computer

A Bountiful obstetrician-gynecologist was charged Monday with sexually assaulting two young girls and having child pornography.

Nathan Ward, 55, of Bountiful, was charged in 2nd District Court with 11 felonies: sodomy upon a child, aggravated sexual child abuse, forcible sodomy, two counts of forcible sexual abuse and six charges of sexual exploitation of a minor.

Ward is accused of sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl in Davis County in 2012, according to charges, and abusing another “minor female” between 2012 and 2015. Charging records indicate that Ward ”occupied a position of special trust” to this alleged victim, but did not detail the relationship any further.

He is also accused of possessing child pornography in 2016. A probable cause statement indicated that when he was arrested, investigators traced three child pornography images to a computer at Lakeview Hospital, where Ward worked.

Investigators confronted Ward at the hospital in February and he reportedly denied any connection to the email address. However, Yahoo — responding to a court order — confirmed on May 30 that the owner of the email account had the same birthdate as Ward, and account details included an address in Idaho where Ward had lived in 2002.

Investigators also found six additional internet protocol (IP) addresses originating from not only Lakeview Hospital, but also other medical facilities and Ward’s current Bountiful residence. Yahoo also released 37 images associated with the account.

This included “seven child sexually exploitive images” as well as “images of family members, voyeuristic photos of underage females and a self[ie],” the probable cause statement claimed.

The same account was used for several online conversations “explicit in nature,” in some cases providing phone numbers at both Ward’s residence and Lakeview Hospital — and claims from Ward that he had raped 13- and a 15-year-old girls, in the latter case with the alleged consent of the victim’s father.

Ward is scheduled to make his first court appearance on Friday. He is currently being held in the Davis County jail without the opportunity to post bail.