Uni ‘regrets’ its handling of sex claims

The University of Auckland “deeply regrets” how it handled sexual assault allegations from a female student, and its vice chancellor says its response was “not adequate”.

At the weekend, the Herald on Sunday revealed a male student, who a university proctor agreed had twice raped and physically assaulted another student, was given a written reprimand and allowed to keep studying.

Eight months on, he is still at the university and just two weeks ago did the university tell the woman, by letter, the man would have to face a disciplinary committee.

In an email to the student body this week, vice-chancellor Dawn Freshwater said the university “deeply regrets” its inadequate response.

She said it was critically important they improve the responses to sexually harmful behaviour. To this end, Freshwater said she had committed to accelerating the implementation of the Creating Cultures of Consent and Respect Action Plan.

Freshwater also noted a decision to refer the case to the university’s discipline committee came before the

Herald contacted the university. The complainant told the Herald

on Sunday she was still horrified at how her case was treated by the university.

“The whole reason I went through this process was so that there would be consequences for his actions so that this will never happen to another girl again.”

In the letter, the university said the proctor did not have the power to resolve such a serious case and it should have been referred to the university’s discipline committee.

It said the proctor had accepted that last year the man had sex with her while she was too intoxicated to consent.

The letter said the proctor upheld the allegation that the man “engaged in sexual intercourse with [the victim] without consent as she told him to stop and pushed him off of her, but he resumed the act”.

The man declined to comment.