by: Marcos Ortiz
Posted: / Updated:
SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4 ) – All she wanted was to become a firefighter.
But that ambition cost the woman her career and identity. Her name is being withheld because she is a sexual assault survivor.
Her supervisor, a deputy fire chief was sentenced to prison recently for attacking the woman at the fire station.
Austin Corry was the deputy fire chief for the town of Kanosh and will serve up to 15-years in prison.
“Austin stole so much from me,” the woman said at Austin’s sentencing in Utah County.
“He took something from me one person should never have stolen from them.”
It all began in 2018. The woman was a volunteer firefighter. Corry was her supervisor.
“I knew that last day was going to change everything,” she said in court.
She went to authorities filing a complaint that she had been raped.
He soon faced multiple counts of rape, object rape, sexual assault, and sexual battery.
Her passion to become a firefighter ended that day as her quest for justice began.
“I loved my job as a firefighter,” she said. (By) leaving the situation with, I hoped someone that I felt should have helped me, (was) my only regret.”
After four years of fighting the allegations in court, the disgraced firefighter accepted a plea bargain for reduced charges of forcible sex abuse.
“I am truly sorry for my actions in being involved,” Corry told the judge. “I have learned a lot from when I spent time in jail to think back on this.”
But before he was sentenced, the woman told the court of the impact it had on her life.
“Every day I visit the fact that this happened,” she said. “My life has changed in every way. I lost friends a home, the dog I love, a home, a lot of my family. I have moved out of state.”
But Corry mitigated his involvement at the firehouse. While he regretted the harm he did to the woman, he too felt wronged.
“The reason I was shocked from the accusations was because what was brought forward to me,” he said. “The circumstances on my part, were consensual and was turned and used against me.”
But Judge Anthony Howell reminded Corry that she recorded the sexual assault knowing she’d need evidence of the crime.
“She knew without overwhelming evidence to support her claim of sexual assault, she would have been numbered one of the many women and vulnerable women who have been sexually assaulted,” Judge Howell said. “And for him, the case would never be brought, never filed, never prosecuted.”
Corry asked for probation and time served. But Judge Howell denied both those requests. Corry was handed a one-to-fifteen-year prison sentence for each of the counts.
The judge ruled each count will run consecutive to the other. Corry was also facing a second rape charge, but the case was dismissed as part of the plea bargain. The survivor in the second case was consulted and agreed to have her case dismissed.