AURORA, Utah — A man who works as a firefighter in a small town in central Utah has been arrested for alleged sexual exploitation of a minor.
According to an arrest report, 44-year-old Gary Joseph Hawkins contacted an undercover FBI employee who was posing as a mother with a 9-year-old child on an online forum. Investigators said the employee did this on websites that are known to attract adults with "sexual interest in children." Hawkins reportedly contacted her on the messaging app Kik.
Hawkins, who lives in Aurora, Sevier County, allegedly sent the FBI employee messages in which he sought to meet up and sexually abuse the 9-year-old girl. He also sent a photo of his face, which investigators determined was Hawkins based on his driver's license photo on record.
Police said Hawkins asked for nude photos of the child. He also allegedly sent extremely graphic and disturbing messages about what he wanted to do. Court documents state that he wanted to "create an incest family" with the pair.
Between November 2023 and January 2024, Hawkins allegedly sent child pornography to the undercover FBI employee on multiple occasions. According to police, he said one of the images was of a friend's daughter that he took off her phone. He also admitted that he almost got caught with child pornography on his phone, some of which were of children that he knew or even had a position of trust over.
After confirming that Hawkins was the online user connected to the Kik profile that messaged the FBI employee, he was arrested during a traffic stop on Monday. While he was in the back of the police car, an officer said it appeared he was texting his adult son with what "appeared to be instructions to return to the residence to delete or destroy evidence."
Police pointed out that Hawkins is a member of the Aurora Fire Department, which they said gives him a "position of trust" and would "place youth at unnecessary risk" if he were released from jail. On Monday, a judge signed an order to hold him in jail without bail.
He faces three 2nd-degree felony counts of sexual exploitation of a minor.
