Former St. George teacher pleads to sex charges

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A former southern Utah high school teacher has pleaded guilty to multiple sex offenses for fondling three young girls and a woman over a span of several years.

John Robert James Cody, 42, pleaded guilty this week in 5th District Court to three reduced second-degree felony counts of sexual abuse of a child and one second-degree felony count of forcible sexual abuse. He also pleaded guilty to a count of sexual battery, a class A misdemeanor.

According to court documents, Cody, a former social studies teacher at Pineview High School in St. George, grabbed a woman's breast and touched a girl underneath her swimming suit at an apartment complex swimming pool in June 2008.

Later that year, another girl reported that Cody threw her into the swimming pool and touched her underneath her suit.

He was also charged last year with sexually abusing a girl when she was 10 years old.

Cody later told one girls' mother that he was "sick, has a problem and that he needs professional help," according to court documents.

afalk@sltrib.com