University of Utah diver Ben Smyth has returned to the United States after fleeing the country amid a rape investigation.
Smyth, 19, was charged with sodomy, sexual abuse and rape last week after a woman came forward and told police Smyth raped her in her dorm room in August 2022.
Shortly after being interviewed by police, Smyth fled to his home country of Canada.
After a warrant for Smyth’s arrest was issued early last week, Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said Friday that Smyth had returned to the U.S. and was in custody in Seattle.
Smyth’s attorney declined to comment on whether Smyth returned to the U.S. willingly or was extradited after a warrant for his arrest had been issued.
“It is our understanding that he is in custody in Seattle,” Gill said.
Smyth, a native of Saanichtion, British Columbia, was in his sophomore season with the Utes in 2022-23.
He last competed for the team in a tri-meet with USC and UCLA on Feb. 10. Utah Athletics became aware of the allegations on Feb. 16 and suspended him from all team activities four days later.
When questioned by police, Smyth initially denied knowing the woman, then later told police he had consensual sex with her, according to court documents said. Smyth also told police he knew the woman was in pain while they were having sex.
When police returned days later to serve Smyth with a protective order, they learned he had packed his things and moved out, and a private investigator later confirmed he fled to Canada.
Smyth faces charges of rape, a first-degree felony; forcible sodomy, a first-degree felony; and forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony. Read more on the case here.
Smyth joined the University of Utah as a freshman in the fall of 2021. He finished second in the men’s platform event and seventh on 1-meter at the 2022 Pac-12 Championships, and qualified for NCAAs during his first season at Utah, placing 36th on platform and 47th on 3-meter at the 2022 Men’s NCAA Championships.
There is a time and place for jokes and it takes a mature adult to figure that out-
Lots of sad news on Swimswam today, alongside the joyful (Ledecky! Ikee! Hurrah!). As a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, I appreciate that Swimswam covers this stuff. You’re doing a real service in helping people see just how widespread sexual abuse and assault are. It’s painful to read these headlines, but I’d rather see them than know that things are being swept under the rug.
When we started SwimSwam, we started it at a time when swimming was having a reckoning about sweeping things under the rug. I was young and naive about how difficult it was to expose these things at the time, but it never made sense to me why everyone was so happy to ignore this stuff.
It’s made a lot of people not like us, and that’s something we have to accept. Many are very public about disliking us, but you’ll notice that they never bring up the *real reasons* why (I know why, because in many cases, I have the text messages that show where the relationship changed). But if we have to choose between exposing the worst elements in… Read more »
Props, man. I mean it.
Your stance may have made some people not like you, but I’m sure it made most of us like you even more. Keep it up.
No bueno
he gotta call saul fr😭😭
Not remotely appropriate to make jokes about this in my opinion.
luckily we live in a free country and are allowed to have differing opinions. play stupid games, win stupid prizes🤷
Yes, we live in a country where people are allowed to be creepy (looking at you, undeez), and others are allowed to call them out for it.