nick’s (n)-line life

The BBC has reported that the charges against the 6 undergraduates have now been dropped. Good news for everyone. I’ve been asked not to make a big deal out of this, so I won’t…

Original article dated June 14, 2005

I noticed yesterday [13/6/05] that the Girton sexual assault incident has finally reached the mainstream media.

[Six students] were arrested following an incident at a party at the college on March 17. Police confirmed last month a 19- year-old and 18-year-old from Cambridge, an 18- year-old from Surrey, an 18-year-old from Essex, a 20-year-old from Wales and a 19-year-old from Middlesex had been arrested on suspicion of a serious sexual assault.

Since this has happened I have decided that it is now the time to make some comments on the incident (I had previously been refraining from doing so). Obviously, as a Girton student, I have a vested interest in finding out what actually happened. College has, understandably, been trying to play the incident down and keep everything quiet.

I know who a number of these people are, however, it doesn’t seem fair to publicly name them, so I’ll follow the general trend and refrain from doing so. All this post will do is list other sources which have discussed this issues so far (I will be updating this post and modifying the timestamp as I notice more).

The facts are that 6 students were arrested on the morning of the 17th March. One student claimed that 6 other students committed a sexual assault against him.

The first information circulated was in the Cambridge student newspaper Varsity (10/4/05) (the hardcopy edition was released several days earlier)

The following is the only information that has been released to all Girton students:

To: All students
From: Senior Tutor, Girton College
Sent: 29/4/05

Many of you may have already seen or will see the report in Varsity of an
incident at the end of last term when a number of students were arrested.
I would like clarify the fact that this incident is still under police
investigation and I am sure you will understand that we cannot therefore
discuss this incident further at this time.
I would however like to assure everyone that the issues surrounding this
incident are being dealt with by college authorities according to normal
college procedures.
As always our primary concern is the safety and welfare of all our students.
In this context if any student has particular concerns regarding this
incident or its reporting by Varsity they should speak to their own Tutor
or to myself.

The incident has now been noticed by the mainstream media in the Scotsman (10th June) and the Cambridge Evening News (10th June).

Update: We’re now in the national news (BBC) and even the international news (BABC). Yahoo is picking it up indirectly through their news aggregator.

A forum thread at The Student Room is also open on this.

Obviously, I have no idea whether there is any truth behind these claims. It does however seem that no good result can come out of the incident now. Either the claims will be found to be true and these 6 students will be kicked out and face prosecution, or the claims will be found to be false and the accuser will face similar measures.

Not good at all.