Lecturer loses £4m sexual harassment case with LSE

A LEADING academic has lost an employment tribunal against one of the UK’s top universities over claims two female colleagues sexually harassed him.

Dr Theodore Piepenbrock said he was forced out of the London School of Economics after lodging complaints.

He was seeking £4million in compensation but the tribunal rejected his claims of unfair dismissal, disability discrimination and victimisation.

Dr Piepenbrock alleged that he was harassed by a colleague who went on to subject him to a ‘campaign of vengeance’.

He also accused a younger colleague of indecently exposing herself to him at a hotel.

But the woman, Ms D, later made a harassment complaint, which Dr Piepenbrock denied.

He was signed off work and his position was not renewed.

The academic told the tribunal: ‘I can only describe the LSE as an orgy of debauchery.’

But in a written judgment, the tribunal said he was not a ‘reliable or credible witness’.

It added that he had demonstrated ‘behaviour which is manipulative and dishonest’.

In a separate case, Dr Piepenbrock lost a £4million compensation claim against the LSE in 2018 for errors in the handling of Ms D’s complaint.