The University of Utah campus is viewed from Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, in 2018.Rick Bowmer/The Associated Press
A Victoria diver has been taken into custody in the United States to face sexual-assault charges relating to an incident in a dorm room at the University of Utah, where he was studying on an athletic scholarship.
A Utah arrest warrant was issued earlier this week for Benjamin Smyth, a 20-year-old from Victoria.
According to police documents, Mr. Smyth got the phone number of a young woman in a common area of their student housing then later allegedly raped her in her dorm room. At the time, he was attending the University of Utah on scholarship as a member of the men’s swimming and diving program.
The police documents allege he “fled” campus in February upon learning he was under investigation for the Aug. 16, 2022, incident with a fellow student.
Mr. Smyth had been in Canada but was back in the U.S. on Thursday night, Keith Chalmers, a spokesman in the Salt Lake District Attorney’s office said in an e-mail. Mr. Smyth is charged with forcible sodomy, forcible sexual abuse and rape.
“It is our understanding that he is in custody in Seattle,” Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said.
The Globe and Mail reached out to members of Mr. Smyth’s family for comment, but did not hear back. Mr. Smyth’s lawyer, Scott Wilding, did not immediately respond to request for comment from the Associated Press.
When Detective Francisco Javier Chavez from the university’s police department interviewed Mr. Smyth about the alleged incident, Mr. Smyth first denied knowing the victim, the police documents say.
Later in the interview, however, he said he knew her and had sex with her when they first met. The documents say his and the victims’ descriptions of the event “substantially corroborated” one another “apart from the element of consent.”
In a statement, Utah Athletics said the school first became aware of the allegations against Mr. Smyth on Feb. 16 and suspended him from team activities four days later. “We take matters of this type very seriously, and have continued to monitor the situation.”
The University of Utah confirmed that Mr. Smyth was enrolled during the spring, 2023, semester with classes ending April 25. Rebecca Walsh, the school’s communication manager, could not confirm if he still has his scholarship, because of federal student privacy rules.
The Salt Lake County District Attorney Office said on Feb. 24, Det. Chavez went to Mr. Smyth’s dorm to attempt to serve him with a temporary protective order that would prevent him from contacting the victim.
Police documents say he was gone by that point. Mr. Smyth’s roommate told Det. Chavez that Mr. Smyth had “cleaned out all his belongings and moved out.”
Mr. Smyth was a member of Boardworks, a diving club in Victoria, from 2008 to 2020, according to a statement from the club’s president, Tim Pfeifer. He became an affiliate member of the club once he moved to Utah. Mr. Pfeifer said there were no disciplinary issues with Mr. Smyth while he was a Boardworks member.
“Given the seriousness of the allegations, Boardworks acted immediately to suspend his registration with the club until the criminal case has been completed. His status with the club will be reviewed at that time,” Mr. Pfeifer said. The national diving body has also suspended Mr. Smyth until the case is resolved, he said.
With a report from the Associated Press