Utahn convicted in U. campus gropings faces new criminal charges

Gary Winston Fotheringham is charged with lewdness by a registered sex offender after police say he exposed himself to women at a gym. | Davis County Jail

FARMINGTON — A man convicted of a series of gropings at the University of Utah in 2011 was taking pictures of random women without their permission in a mall last fall, according to prosecutors.

Gary Winston Fotheringham, 39, of American Fork, was charged Thursday in 2nd District Court with possession of a weapon by a restricted person, a third-degree felony, and trespassing, a class B misdemeanor.

The charges are the latest in a string of sexual misconduct offenses Fotheringham is accused of committing.

In 2013, Fotheringham was sentenced to a term of zero to five years in prison in connection with several gropings at the University of Utah.

Last week, Fotheringham was charged in Davis County with lewdness by a registered sex offender, a third-degree felony, after two women at VASA Fitness in Kaysville, 170 W. 200 North, said Fotheringham exposed himself to them while they were working out.

Thursday, prosecutors charged Fotheringham for a different incident on Oct. 5.

It began when he was spotted at Layton Hills Mall “taking photographs of females walking through the mall,” according to charging documents.

One person confronted Fotheringham about why he was taking pictures, which prompted him to reply, “I can take pictures of whatever I want” before brandishing a knife, the charges state.

That witness followed Fotheringham to a trailer park close to the mall and called police. Officers found Fotheringham on the back porch of a trailer home that was not his, according to charging documents.

“Officers searched the defendant and located a bottle of personal lubricant, and observed that the defendant was wearing women’s underwear,” the charges state.

Fotheringham was also convicted of patronizing a prostitute in October, and twice of lewdness in 2011 in separate cases that also occurred near the University of Utah, according to court records.

He is currently on the Utah Sex Offender and Kidnapping Registry.

Fotheringham is scheduled to be arraigned in the VASA Fitness case on April 9. His initial appearance for his new charges is scheduled for March 16.

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