Outrage as students who threatened to rape 100 girls let back into university
Two male students who were banned from the University of Warwick in England after writing messages about raping 100 girls are to be allowed to return .
The pair, who had written the messages on a Facebook group chat, had been banned for 10 years but will now head back to the university this year.
The university said the the ban had been reduced to a year after the students appealed their original sanction.
Women at Warwick have criticised the decision and it has also emerged that they were not initially told of the decision to reduce the ban.
A woman who was targeted by the messages said she felt “terrified at the prospect of having these boys in my seminars”.
One wrote an open letter to bosses at Warwick University claiming they had “forgotten about and humiliated the victims” by reversing the 10-year ban.
“We were discussed so violently. We were humiliated, as if for sport,” she wrote.
Although we've seen much discussion on recent events at Warwick, we’re unable to comment on individual discipline cases. We'd like to advise any students or staff who've been affected to contact Wellbeing Support Services or the Students’ Union Advice centre for support.
— University of Warwick (@warwickuni) January 30, 2019
“You expect us to return from semesters abroad and study alongside these men?”
In a letter seen by the BBC, one university official apologised to the women affected for not telling them about the ban’s reduction sooner because of “my delayed summer break”.
The conversations on Facebook were first reported last summer by the university’s student newspaper, The Boar.
“Sometimes it’s fun to just go wild and rape 100 girls,” one of the messages said.
Another said: “Rape the whole flat to teach them all [a] lesson.” and a further message called for a woman to be raped “in the street while everybody watches”.
Racial and anti-Semitic language was also used.
As a result, five students were suspended.
There are many reasons I like working at @warwickuni but right now none of them seem important. I am ashamed to work at a uni that supports rapists and will take part in no more UCAS events encouraging students to study here until things change. #ShameOnYouWarwick
— Michael Staniforth (@ScienceBurrito) January 31, 2019
Two of those were the students initially banned for 10 years, two were excluded for one year, and one was given a lifetime campus ban.
This means four out of the five the men initially suspended will rejoin classes in September 2019.
A spokesman from Warwick University told the BBC its focus had been ‘to ensure that anyone involved in this matter who remains a student at Warwick is able to complete their studies’.
Students from the university have taken to Twitter to voice their anger using the hashtag #ShameOnYouWarwick.
