Charged for sex with his teen karate student, he posted bail – then kept abusing her, police say
He was arrested and charged for sexually abusing his 14-year-old karate student in April. That same day, he got out of jail.
But seven months later, Damian Fullmer, the 20-year-old karate instructor, has been arrested again in Clearfield, Utah — this time, court documents say, because Fullmer “continued to have sexual contact with the victim” he had abused earlier, ABC 4 reports.
The earlier alleged abuse led to charges of aggravated sexual assault and forcible sodomy of a child, according to ABC 4. Fullmer had been held on $150,000 bail when he was initially arrested in April, and then was released from jail, KSL reports.
Fullmer has now been charged with multiple counts of rape of a child and sexual exploitation of a minor in the Farmington Second District Court, according to records from Davis County Jail, where he’s being held. He was booked on Nov. 12, jail records say.
When the girl’s stepmother came across incriminating photos on the girl’s phone, police started investigating Fullmer again in October, KSL reports.
Court documents say that Fullmer started reaching out to the child on social media after his April arrest, KUTV reports. He even bought her a “burner phone” so they could communicate without parental interference, according to court document. Fullmer allegedly went so far as to pick the girl up from her summer soccer camp so he could “engage in sexual activity with her,” according to court documents.
When police looked at Fullmer’s phone, they found 157 pictures of the alleged victim — including 43 nude pictures, and five of Fullmer and the girl having sex, according to charges reviewed by KSL. Of the five sexual pictures of the two, three appeared to be taken at the karate studio in Syracuse, Utah where Fullmer was an instructor, police said.
Evolutionary Martial Arts, where Fullmer taught, fired him in April, the month he was arrested, according to KSL.
But the girl told police the two continued to have contact from June to October, according to the warrant reviewed by ABC 4, and that “Damian would tell her when he was close and she would sneak out her window. Damian would pick her up, take her to his house, and then would drop her back off in the morning.”
Fullmer also made requests of the girl via text message, police said.
“There were text messages sent from Damian asking the child to wear the stuff he got her from Victoria's Secret,” a warrant reviewed by KSL said.
The two allegedly saw each other weekly, according to KUTV.
When he was initially charged in April, police told the Deseret News that Fullmer had been having sex with the teen girl for five or six months — usually at Fullmer’s parents’ home in Clearfield, where the 20-year-old suspect lived.
The girl’s parents initially contacted police in April after the girl attempted suicide, the Deseret News reports. Fullmer was arrested the next day.
This story was originally published November 15, 2017 at 1:51 PM with the headline "Charged for sex with his teen karate student, he posted bail – then kept abusing her, police say."