Assistant fire chief in Utah charged with raping co-worker

Assistant fire chief in Utah charged with raping co-worker

PROVO, Utah (AP) — A Utah assistant fire chief has been charged with raping a woman he worked with several times over the course of three years.

Austin J. Corry, 26, appeared in court Thursday on 14 counts, including rape and forcible sexual abuse, the Daily Herald newspaper in Provo reported .

The first assault happened in 2015, when at the fire department in the small Millard County town of Kanosh, police said. He allegedly assaulted her in a truck after asking her to help with equipment maintenance.

She said no, but he held her down by the throat, according to authorities. Shortly after, he again assaulted her after calling her to the station.

No attorney was immediately listed for him in court documents, and a message left at a publicly listed phone number was not immediately returned.

As the abuse continued the woman spent less time at the station and considered quitting, but didn’t want to lose her job and decided to stick it out when she heard Corry might be moving to another department.

During one attack, “she prayed it would end,” Utah County Sheriff’s deputies wrote in a report.

The AP does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault.

Audio recordings she made of two assaults this year reveal Corry ignoring her pleas.

Prosecutors say she spoke to investigators after a firetruck arrived at the station while he was assaulting her in a locker room on Aug. 20 and co-workers called police.

Corry sent her a text message the next day saying he was sorry and hoped she would forgive him, according to court documents. He later acknowledged to police he had sex with her even though she didn’t want to, authorities said.

He is being held at the Utah County Jail on a $30,000 bail.