Rebecca Nice suffered more than two years of sexual harassment when she was an undergraduate student at Winchester University.
Nice, a mature student, was struggling with depression and anxiety, as well as the break-up of a long-term relationship, and decided to repeat her second year.
In March 2013, after confiding her problems to Dr Mark Allen, a programme leader in history, he began sending her dozens of explicit and manipulative messages, first via private messages on Twitter then by text, to try to persuade her to have sex with him and expressing his sexual fantasies about her, she said.
“[On another occasion] he had said ‘how are you?’ And I said: ‘I’ve had a panic attack today, I’m so stressed I don’t know what’s going on with this presentation,’ and he just replied immediately: ‘Oh you need sex’,” said Nice, who was registered as a disabled student because of the panic attacks and depression.
“It’s really obvious how desperate I was at that time and I felt terrified to say anything … He would tell me fantasies about tying me to chairs. Most of them were wanting to have sex but there were fantasy ones … I was very fearful during that time.”
She said that when she raised the issue with staff, Allen’s colleagues impressed on her his standing in academia, which she took to imply that her complaint risked damaging the university’s reputation.
She first reported the harassment to a female lecturer who asked her whether the crude remarks were just the programme leader’s “old-fashioned Benny Hill” sense of humour. Another female lecturer later advised her to let it go.
According to Nice, when she went to student services, an adviser told her they would not be taking her complaint forward. She said another adviser told her: “I love our discussions, it’s like an episode of EastEnders.”
Meanwhile, the head of student services “brought up all of these times when I’d had panic attacks and when I’d felt awful and gone in there”, Nice said. “And she went: ‘You feel awful now don’t you?’ And I said: ‘Yeah, it was horrible having to relive it.’ Then she said: ‘Well just imagine someone else going through all of this – that’s what it’s going to feel like. Are you sure you want to do it?’ I felt like she was doing everything possible to put me off.”
When she decided to make a formal complaint, Nice said the dean of the faculty told her she did not know how the complaints procedure worked. The case eventually went to the university’s investigating officer and dean of performing arts, Tony Dean, who she says was “professional, interrogative and empathetic”.
Her complaint of sexual harassment was upheld but all she received was a brief letter on 19 January this year from Prof Kristyan Spelman Miller, the dean of humanities and social sciences, confirming this and offering her regret on behalf of the university. It also stated that her harasser had been disciplined. He remains employed at Winchester.
“It was such an anticlimax,” Nice said. “I feel really angry that he’s still there.”
The Guardian contacted Allen, who declined to comment. A spokesperson for the University of Winchester said: “When a complaint about sexual harassment is made we take it very seriously and have robust procedures in place to take action. We always take disciplinary measures if we find the allegations to be proven.
”We are grateful for Rebecca’s courage in bringing the matter to light. We are mortified and more than sorry that this has happened. We have introduced a number of initiatives to ensure that all our students and staff can enjoy a safe place to work, learn and live.”
