Students accused of rape at university bringing lawyers to hearings

A very sad situation. Apparently, money decides everything.

It is odd that a victim would want to take a criminal case to a university or employer who are not trained to resolve the situation rather than the police.

Not really. The uni is likely to be more reactive and have a more rapid way of dealing with the situation so that the girl doesn’t have to meet the person that aggressed her every day. A fresher who is raped will have the time to graduate before the case comes to trial.

It is odd that a victim would want to take a criminal case to a university or employer who are not trained to resolve the situation rather than the police.

As previously said, the issue is that the woman who has been sexually assaulted would still in many cases want to complete her course, but if you'd been raped and the rapist was with you every day in class, can you see that working well?

Thanks for the info about the law around disciplinary hearings, very interesting.

The problem about rejecting all enquiries or hearings at the university level into rape allegations (not implying this is your specific position, just making a general point) is that women students who have been raped invariably have to continue (if nothing is done) to be alongside the rapist in classes, at events on campus, etc, which can be truly awful. Another point is that if male students are going around raping (and those men who do this, tend to do it more than once), other women on campus deserve protection from them. A university should be a safe place to study for everyone, but many students live there as well during term time and some all year round. It's not the same as rape in a more anonymous or detached context, such as a woman being attacked by someone she barely knows or does not know on a night out in a city.

thank you for putting up with my long-winded comments. this whole thing is a complete mind**** on how it will work in practice so my brain starts churning lol

just to add to the hypothetical scenario that a complainant could be provided a solicitor by the university, this begs the question if the university would bring in its own legal representation, then. cuz in reality, the issue at this level is not between the two students - the issue is between the university and the accused: is there a breach of contract between the accused and the university on grounds of misconduct? now that gets complicated with three lawyers in the house. holy moly i don't even want to imagine it atm.

also amusing that the case law replied upon by the judge and the claimaint in AB v The University XYZ is from cases involving prisoners. cuz really same shite, different pile.

regarding your point, oh i know. that's why i reckoned universities would err on the side of caution, especially when it's only based on a balance of probabilities, cuz that would be terrible for a student to have to see this person in class, in student accommodation, etc. surely the university has the same duty of care to protect students as they would if a staff member complained about sexual misconduct? i would have to google that tho.

not to be too pedantic but let's not lable this a woman thing tho. my mate was raped by another student, on school grounds to boot. he ended up having to leave that school cuz the whole thing was mismanaged. won't get into it tho cuz it upsets me.

Not a lawyer but i have some queries.

Is a University obliged to report an alleged sexual misconduct case to the police when it has been brought to them by a victim? Surely, this would be a reasonable approach to take than the institution performing the role of the police and court of law.

no one is obliged to report a crime, even if you've witnessed it yourself. i can provide a link if you want but it's just further reading lol

a university doesn't have the capacity to evaluate if a crime has been committed, nor does it take on that concern; it's evaluating misconduct under the contract the university proposed and the student agreed to. i reckon @grd800 summarised it in comment 22, when evaluated by the university -

"it's not usually about saying 'they've committed rape', it's about the behaviour around it fitting in with the agreement the students sign up to when they take up their degre eprogramme. So it's a values thing, and about whether there is demonstrable evidence that behaviour around an allegation fits in with those values."

your concerns from what i see are valid btw. fear that students would use universities as a court of law instead of a court of law, amrite? give me a moment and i can propose another tl;rd

I don't see why a University would even have a hearing or anything similar with respect to something that falls under criminal law. If a student is found by the court to have raped another student, then the University would take the verdict and apply its internal policy appropriately following that- I expect expulsion would be the least of the problems that the rapist would face (and thank god that's the case.) In any case that the courts get involved, the court should hand out a verdict and the University should apply internal policy based on that verdict, without some hearing to decide morality (since it isn't their place to do so.) If the courts don't get involved (I can't see why they wouldn't- if this rape allegation is serious surely charges would be raised and the courts would get involved in judging the perpetrator) then by all means the University can do as they wish- but I'm quite sure that rape would merit it.

Thanks for the explanation. I have lived with the understanding that one was obliged to report a crime.

Yes, my concern is the evolution of universities into courts of law (as alluded to by other members of this thread) esp when they are not trained to execute on those responsibilities.

The situation is more analogous to a problem tenant in a housing block who has repeatedly attacked or harassed neighbours, but has not been charged by the police. In that situation, the housing management would surely be well within their rights to consider chucking them out.

Not a lawyer but i have some queries.

Is a University obliged to report an alleged sexual misconduct case to the police when it has been brought to them by a victim? Surely, this would be a reasonable approach to take than the institution performing the role of the police and court of law.

Well, because it's not adjudicating on matters of law. It is a complaint that amounts to a workplace claim of harassment and/or violence. It really is very simple and I think this report must either be wildly misconstrued or some new development, because I have been involved in more than a few of these sorts of complaints and it absolutely is not remotely similar to a criminal trial (and nor should it be).

I have taken a quick (unqualified) look again at some of the Data Protection Act and its application

If I am correct under the following legislation, there is a duty to share information under certain circumstances:

1. Common law duty of confidentiality
2. The Data Protection Act 2018
3. The General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR)
also under a couple more Acts

The sharing of personal or sensitive data (information) is deemed allowed even if the person who has provided that information in confidence does not give their express consent to share that data. This is why each Universities understanding and acknowledgement of the need for robust Data Protection Act policies are so important

As I understand it, if a student alleges a rape or serious sexual assault to a University staff member or University body under certain circumstances, this highly confidential information should be shared between relevant bodies (whichever are the most relevant bodies) ie the Police GP’s, Health Authorities, Housing Departments, Social Services, Office of Public Guardian etc and any other nominated authority. This information should be open to be shared without a student giving their explicit consent. Even if they refuse to share the data a staff member can pass the information to relevant bodies for their attention to prevent the following:

• To prevent death or serious harm to others

• Prevent abuse and harm (to others or other members of the public)

Some frontline staff and managers understandably could be over-cautious about sharing personal information, particularly if it is against the wishes of the individual concerned, or against the wishes of a line manager. The staff member or line manager may not have a good understanding of the Data Protection Act. In many circumstances even if a line manager disagrees with that staff member's intentions to share that information, the staff member can still share information and be 'covered' under the clauses of these Acts (But yes you are right thinking it would be a brave staff member!) So in the University policy you would expect that if a student alleged a rape against another student (or staff member) that the information would be immediately transferred to the Police, and this should be openly communicated in University policy.

The following criteria should be considered by persons who hold that data and may consider passing that information to other authority organisations:

Staff should consider the following:

1) To encourage the consideration of the risk of NOT sharing information (you know nothing whatsoever about the background of the alleged offender) and further students are at risk

2) That the sharing of that information could prevent further crime

3) That a serious crime has been committed

If I have interpreted the information on these Acts correctly then perhaps these Universities are failing students by not reporting this information to the police. The police have an immediate duty to investigate such a serious crime ie the alleged offences of rape or sexual assault as soon as they receive it. The police have privileged access to an individuals criminal record, other allegations against that individual and other sensitive data. Their investigations and due justice process could possibly prevent a student from committing further serious offences (certainly if they are remanded in custody or given bail conditions) The police can ultimately assess professionally the allegations and collate information thereby providing evidence to the CPS to make a decision on whether to go ahead and prosecute.

This negates a University from having to investigate an allegation of rape or serious sexual assault received from another student (in and amateur fashion (other than to record the first account of allegation from them) If there is a robust policy of process and this is communicated to all students at the start of each term, then it is unlikely that there will be abuse of the use of University process to hold trials against certain students. If all students are made aware of the University policy at commencement of term it also prevents the one sided 'money privilege' argument to be used in serious allegations as an evasion of justice that some are trying to raise here as an issue.

Some of the information used here is listed in the following link:
https://www.scie.org.uk/safeguarding/adults/practice/sharing-information

What a horrible situation and an awful topic to discuss.

Legally in the UK you CANNOT give consent if you are drunk!