Athlete accused of rape is told how to avoid student at Tesco

AN OXFORD University athlete accused of raping a student was given a onehour window to shop in Tesco to avoid his alleged victim in a move she complained had trivialised her trauma.

The university refused to launch an investigation saying it was a matter for the police but instead a senior academic told the alleged victim that the athlete had agreed to only shop in Tesco for an hour in the morning between set times.

The female student told The Daily Telegraph: “It was completely absurd. It seemed to trivialise such a serious issue down to when he could get his shopping at the supermarket.”

The agreement was brokered by Prof Sir John Bell, the scientist who advises the Government on Covid-19 and sits on the Oxford University Women’s Boat Club executive committee.

Sir John had advised the student, who is a member of the boat club, to make her complaint to the police after she alleged she was sexually assaulted in October last year after going to the athlete’s room after a drunken night out.

The woman did not wish to go to the police but had hoped the university would instead take action. Oxford’s senior proctor however concluded it could not investigate because the allegations required a police investigation. Sir John has insisted he did everything he could to assist the student’s welfare.

In a call with the student on Zoom in December, which she recorded, Sir John told her that the athlete had seen the student in a local Tesco. Sir John told her: “He said he was now anxious of going to Tesco. So I said to him: ‘If we gave you an hour a day to shop, then you won’t run into her because I’ll just tell her to stay out of Tesco’. He said: ‘OK’.”

The student told Sir John in the meeting that the agreement was “helpful”.

But she has remained unhappy with how the university has dealt with her complaint and last week, using the platform of the annual Boat Race she went public with details of the alleged assault and her concerns over its handling by the university.

Her alleged attacker wrote her a letter of apology a week after the incident in October last year. The athlete has strenuously denied committing any criminal offence and the university has insisted there was not sufficient evidence to take action.

Last night, Oxford said: “We cannot comment on the details of this case, but our disciplinary teams, support services and sports clubs have shown great empathy and concern for student welfare.”

‘It seemed to trivialise such a serious issue down to when he could get his shopping at the supermarket’