Harman’s sex claims can’t be true, says lecturer’s ex-wife

THE former wife of a lecturer accused by Harriet Harman of offering higher grades for sex has branded the allegations dubious and horrible because he was ‘very respectful of women’.

Carole Satyamurti, 77, said her ex-husband Professor T V Sathyamurthy was a ‘brilliant man’ who remained her ‘good friend’ until his death in 1 8 aged 68.

She said Miss Harman, the former Labour deputy leader, may have ‘misunderstood’ and that it was unfair to make allegations against him when he can no longer ‘give his side of things’ or ‘answer back’.

In her memoir, A Woman’s Work, due to be published next week, Miss Harman claims he offered to bump up her marks in return for sex when she studying politics at York University in the 1 70s. She alleges Professor Sathyamurthy, who taught at York for 30 years, told her she was a borderline candidate and would either obtain an upper or lower second – a 2:1 or 2:2.

He then allegedly told her that he could guarantee she would get a 2:1 in return for sleeping with him. Miss Harman said she ‘did not’, and added: ‘I was repulsed by him.’

She graduated from York in 1 72 at the age of 21, and has said she obtained a 2:1 ‘despite’ rejecting the professor’s offer. Yesterday, speaking from her north London home, Mrs Satyamurti, who spells her name slightly differently from her ex-husband’s, said she could not believe the allegation was true.

Mrs Satyamurti, a retired poet and sociology lecturer, said: ‘That’s horrible. I find this very hard to believe. The story sounds very dubious to me. He was very brilliant and full of jokes but very respectful of women. I’m sure he wouldn’t have done that.’

They married in 1 63 but separated around the time of their daughter’s birth in 1 72.