A University of Utah student-athlete fled the country after he was accused of raping a college student in her dorm room at the start of the school year, prosecutors said.
Benjamin Smyth, of Canada, is wanted on rape, forcible sodomy and forcible sexual abuse charges, Salt Lake County District documents obtained by Gephardt Daily show.
The 19-year-old Division I scholarship diver met his alleged victim in December 2022 while she was reading a book in the common area of her dorm building.
Smyth — who approached the woman with a group of men he was hanging out with — exchanged contact information with her.
Later that night, Smyth allegedly messaged her asking whether her roommates were home.
After learning that her dorm room was empty, Smyth visited and made repeated efforts to engage in sexual activities, all of which she rejected, the documents claim.
The diver then allegedly raped her after she said “she didn’t want to have sex,” according to police.
Smyth allegedly pushed “her shoulders to lay her down on the floor” and ignored her pleas of “no” and cried that she “did not want to do that,” according to the charges.
The girl did not report the horrifying crime until February, at which time Smyth is accused of initially denying knowing the victim. He later retracted his lie and claimed the two “had sex,” the warrant said.
A subsequent investigation revealed Smyth kept a list of women he slept with.
The school said he was immediately kicked off the University of Utah Swimming and Diving team — just two weeks before the team’s Division I championship meet.
When a detective arrived at Smyth’s dorm room to serve a restraining order, his roommate said that the diver had packed his bags and moved out.
A private investigator told cops the teenager had escaped to his native Vancouver.
“On February 16 we were made aware of a serious allegation involving a member of our men’s swimming and diving program,” the university told FOX Television Stations in a statement.
“Upon being notified by the University’s Office of Equal Opportunity (OEO) of a pending investigation, Ben Smyth was immediately suspended on Feb. 20 from all team activities. We take matters of this type very seriously, and have continued to monitor the situation.
The university has since scrubbed Smyth’s athletic profile from its athletics site, though an existing account shows that he competed in a meet just three days before his alleged victim reported the assault.
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