Winnipeg city councillor Russ Wyatt is facing charges following a sexual assault investigation by police.<\/p>\n
In a news release issued Wednesday, the Winnipeg Police Service said its Sex Crimes Unit began investigating in February 2026 after receiving a report from an adult male.<\/p>\n
Police allege the incident dates back to December 2025, when the complainant met another adult man through a social website. The two later met in person on multiple occasions.<\/p>\n
During one of those meetings at a residence in the city\u2019s east end, police allege the victim was given an illicit drug and sexually assaulted.<\/p>\n
The complainant later sought medical attention.<\/p>\n
The WPS says that on March 24, Russell George Wyatt, 56, was arrested and charged with sexual assault, and administering a noxious substance with intent to aggrieve or annoy.<\/p>\n
He was released on an undertaking and none of the allegations have been proven in court.<\/p>\n
Previous assault charges stayed in 2019<\/p>\n
Wyatt had previously faced similar allegations from a woman. In July 2018, he was charged in connection with what police at the time described as a “serious sexual assault” alleged to have occurred in January 2018.<\/p>\n
Wyatt publicly proclaimed and maintained his innocence when the charges were first laid. In June 2019 the charges were stayed by the Crown.<\/p>\n
Following those earlier charges, Wyatt took a five-month leave of absence in 2018 and sought help for alcohol and substance abuse. In June of that year, he also publicly came out as bisexual.<\/p>\n
Police say they remain committed to supporting survivors of sexual assault. Resources include Winnipeg Police Service Victim Services at 204-986-6350 and the Klinic Sexual Assault Crisis Line at 204-786-8631.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Winnipeg city councillor Russ Wyatt is facing charges following a sexual assault investigation by police. In a news…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-561236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}