Content warning: this story describes a detailed account of an on-campus rape.
A UF student was arrested Monday for the rape of a woman on campus — almost five months after it happened.
Elliot Whitney was charged with sexual battery, according to an arrest report from the University of Florida Police Department.
The incident was originally reported through a Campus Security Authority reporting form, UFPD Captain Kristy Sasser wrote in an email to The Alligator. The incident was reported to law enforcement Monday, the day he was arrested.
He is a 20-year-old UF mechanical engineering junior, as first reported by the Gainesville Sun. University Police said the victim was assaulted by Whitney in her dorm room in Jennings Hall Aug. 22.
Before the rape took place, Whitney is accused of asking the victim if she wanted oral sex, which she agreed to, according to the report. Instead, Whitney “rolled on top of the victim,” and caused her pain.
When the victim began to cry and asked Whitney to stop, he didn’t listen, the report read.
But approximately two weeks after the rape, Whitney admitted to the rape and apologized to the victim, according to the arrest report. He said this would “haunt him for the rest of his life.”
This is one of four reports of sexual battery to take place on UF campus in the last year.
Last semester, a UF resident assistant was arrested for sexual battery, a former UF football player was accused of rape, a UF student was raped in Rawlings Hall and another student was raped on her way to the UF Homecoming football game.
In October, UF President Kent Fuchs addressed the alarming sexual assault and sexual misconduct rate at UF and other universities in a monthly column published in The Alligator. He wrote that UF would identify its shortcomings and examine its approaches.
Fuchs wrote that these statistics show that nearly one out of every four female undergraduates — and 5 percent of undergraduate male respondents — reported experiencing non-consensual sexual contact by physical force, threats of physical force or incapacitation since enrolling at their university.
Whitney was released Tuesday from the Alachua County Jail. His bond was set at $100,000.
Contact Samia Lagmis at slagmis@alligator.org.
Correction:This story has been updated to reflect that the incident was originally reported to Campus Security Authority in August and reported to law enforcement Monday. The Alligator originally reported differently.
Elliot Whitney
