Sex offender charged with exposing himself to women at Sandy store

An American Fork man once convicted of groping women at the University of Utah is facing new charges accusing him of exposing himself to women shopping in Sandy.

An American Fork man once convicted of groping women at the University of Utah is facing new charges accusing him of exposing himself to women shopping in Sandy. (BCFC, Shutterstock)


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SANDY — A convicted sex offender awaiting trial for allegedly exposing himself to women at a Kaysville gym is facing new charges after police said he recently exposed himself to women at a store in Sandy.

Gary Winston Fotheringham, 42, of American Fork, was charged Tuesday in 3rd District Court with lewdness by a sex offender, a third-degree felony.

On Dec. 23, a woman at Scheel's, 11282 S. State, was looking at a rack of clothes when she said she turned and saw Fotheringham standing nearby and holding a shirt near his waist. Fotheringham used the shirt to "cover himself as he walked around" but when he "approached a woman he would move the shirt, exposing his genitals," according to charging documents.

"Gary continued to walk around the store and turn toward different women as they passed him," a police booking affidavit states.

Fotheringham left the store before police arrived. But based on surveillance video, they learned that his car was still in the parking lot. Officers kept watch on his car until he came back for it, then arrested him.

In 2013, Fotheringham made headlines for a series of gropings at the University of Utah. In that case, Fotheringham watched women change in a locker room of the Marriott School of Dance before walking around campus and inappropriately touching several women at random, according to charging documents. He was sentenced to up to five years at the Utah State Prison.

Then in 2020, he was charged with lewdness and accused of exposing himself to two women at VASA Fitness in Kaysville, 170 W. 200 North. A pre-trial conference is scheduled in that case for next week.

Based off publicity from that case, Fotheringham was charged about a month later after being identified in a 2019 incident in Layton in which he took "photographs of females walking through the mall," charging documents state. When confronted by a person who saw what was happening, Fotheringham is accused of pulling out a knife and exclaiming, "I can take pictures of whatever I want."

That case is scheduled to go to trial in May.

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

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Pat Reavy is a longtime police and courts reporter. He joined the KSL.com team in 2021, after many years of reporting at the Deseret News and KSL NewsRadio before that.

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