Shamed Cambridge academic wrote erotic fiction about students
A CAMBRIDGE University don accused of sexual harassment has been exposed as the author of a book of erotic fiction about students.
Ten students complained about ‘inappropriate, sexual and sexist comments’ by Dr Peter Hutchinson during seminars and social events – including asking a young woman if she was turned on by a discussion about a dominatrix.
Following an internal investigation into his conduct in 2015, Dr Hutchinson, 75, withdrew from teaching modern and medieval languages at Trinity Hall. But it has now been revealed that at the time of the complaints he used a pseudonym to selfpublish a book about a lewd don at a fictional Oxford college.
The raunchy novel, called First Time: Ooh-la-la! and penned under the name ‘Barry Able’, tells the story of Peter, who is found guilty of sexual impropriety after a ‘series of erotic adventures’. Most of the women students in the novel are members of a college sex club called ‘The Virgins’ who must each week sleep with a man – or senior academic – to remain in the group.
One student in a short skirt is called a ‘brazen hussy’ and others are described as having ‘ exceptional breasts’ and wearing lingerie, suspenders and garter belts.
The academic, who has been married for 52 years and has two children and two grandchildren, was cleared of sexual assault in 2006 after a complaint brought by an ex-student. The book also features a court case, with Peter accused of sexually assaulting a woman.
Despite not teaching, last year the BBC discovered Dr Hutchinson, who had been at Trinity Hall since 1986, had been kept on by the college. He resigned in November after more than 1,300 students and alumni signed a protest letter.
The revelation about the book, by the Tortoise news website, has sparked outrage among former students who had made complaints against the lecturer. Ellie Pyemont, 38, who brought the court case, told the BBC she ‘recognised’ herself in its pages. She said: ‘It is pathetic he wrote this misogynistic, crass and deluded story. This person was in a position of power over young people at Trinity Hall for decades.’
Sophie Newbery, 23, who graduated from Trinity Hall in 2018 and had been one of the students who complained about Dr Hutchinson, said she was ‘disgusted’ with the book.
Dr Hutchinson said: ‘Does the novel speak to a particular view of undergraduate women which is troubling in a teacher? I suppose that some might say so, but this is fiction, not life.’
A spokesman for Trinity Hall said last night: ‘The college was unaware that this book existed prior to today.’