Pan Am athlete wanted for sexual assault
Brazil water polo goalie has already left Canada, but negotiations are underway to return him to the country
The substitute goalkeeper of the silver-medal Brazilian Pan Am water polo team is wanted on a warrant for sexual assault, Toronto police said Friday.
“The victim was asleep when she was sexually assaulted,” Insp. Joanna Beaven-Desjardins told a press conference.
Police identified the suspect as Thye Mattos Ventura Bezerra, 27, who has left the country.
He allegedly went home with a 22year-old woman and assaulted her in her bedroom in the downtown core after she had gone to sleep, Beaven-Desjardins said.
The suspect was in Canada from July 3 to 16, she said. The Brazilian team won a silver medal after losing the final to the United States on July 15. “There could be other victims,” Beaven-Desjardins said. “He spent two weeks in Toronto.”
She said that Canada does not have an extradition treaty regarding the offence with Brazil. Negotiations are underway to return him, she said.
“We will be notified on any type of travel that he takes,” she said.
All members of Brazil’s water polo team have left Toronto and are in Kazan, Russia, for the 2015 World Aquatics Championships, according to Christian Dawes, with Brazil’s National Olympic committee.
Beaven-Desjardins declined to give details of the alleged assault, other than to say it occurred early in the morning of July 16, hours before the athlete left the country.
He was believed to be with another member of the Brazilian water polo team when he visited the woman’s home, Beaven-Desjardins said.
Another woman who is a friend of the alleged victim was also present, she said.
Beaven-Desjardins said the other Brazilian athlete is not considered a suspect and that the alleged victim is not a Games volunteer.
Another woman was also with her in her home that night, Beaven-Desjardins said.
“The victim came forward at a later time,” Beaven-Desjardins said.
She declined to comment on the condition of the victim.
“It takes great courage and strength to come forward and report these things,” Beaven-Desjardins said.
“Through the Games, there hasn’t been any spike in sexual assaults,” she said.