AUT professor resigns after stalking claims
Dr Max Abbott has resigned from all roles at AUT University following claims of sexual harassment.
In a statement last night, Vice-Chancellor Derek McCormack said he had accepted Abbott’s resignation from employment and all positions at AUT.
“Earlier this week, Dr Max Abbott was suspended pending investigation of allegations made last weekend,” he said.
On June 2, Abbott resigned as AUT’s Dean of the Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences Professor, saying recent media publicity and reactions of some to it made his role untenable.
At the time, McCormack said Abbott would continue as a professor at the university.
His resignation comes after Dr Marisa Paterson, director of the Centre for Gambling Research at Canberra’s Australian National University (ANU), laid a complaint against Abbott last August.
The complaint detailed allegations of “prolonged and persistent stalking, sexual harassment, physical harassment and bullying” by Abbott over a two-year period.
McCormack said on June 2, it was essential that staff and students have full confidence in its approaches to preventing and dealing with harassment.
“We want to be certain we are a place where all of our people feel welcome, safe and able to succeed — and able to raise concerns if that’s not the case.”
McCormack said he understood media coverage of the sexual harassment allegations had raised concerns, but he said claims AUT had not investigated the allegation were untrue.
“The substantive remedies sought by ANU on behalf of the staff member were met and communicated to them.”
He said he had been seeking specific information from ANU about its allegations that it had not investigated the complaint since December, but had not had a response.