1,000 students protest after stalker is let back on campus
A CAMPUS revolt has erupted after a student convicted of stalking his exgirlfriend was allowed to return to the university.
More than 1,000 students have backed a petition calling for Newcastle University to ban anyone found guilty of stalking.
The unnamed victim of Jefferson Young, 22, discovered in September that her stalker was being allowed to return to Newcastle University to take a postgraduate chemistry course.
The university initially refused to confirm the matter and it was only through her own detective work that she found he had returned.
Young had sent his former girlfriend a string of messages and an explicit video of her to her new partner after the breakdown of their relationship.
He had also turned up outside her place of work and made threats to harm himself, South East Northumberland Magistrates’ Court was told.
He pleaded guilty to two counts of stalking and disclosing private material in 2018 and was given a 12-month community order and a restraining order.
Despite this, the university has allowed Young to return to campus following its own hearing where his victim was told she would have to provide evidence of her claims.
She said: ‘Why is his rehabilitation seen as more important than my safety? I was absolutely shocked when I got an email saying he would be allowed back on to university grounds.
‘I asked if I could appeal, but they said I wasn’t allowed to appeal because it wasn’t my hearing.’
It came after it emerged that vice- chancellor Professor Chris Day accidentally sent an email to the victim’s father seeking advice on protecting the university’s reputation. Professor Day sent an internal memo to staff members in which he said he feared ‘ another Warwick’ – a reference to a scandal involving Warwick University students who set up a ‘rape chat’ message group. He inadvertently copied the victim’s father into the email as he asked colleagues ‘for urgent background information’.
In a separate message to student officers, Professor Day apologised for the ‘impression’ he had not treated the case seriously. He said: ‘That was certainly not the intention, indeed quite the opposite.
‘My email was sent within minutes of receiving the student’s email and my response was sent out of genuine concern for this student who had written to me.
‘I do have to consider how the university is perceived among current and prospective students.’
‘What about my safety?’