Rape victim takes Oxford University to court claiming it failed to investigate alleged rape

The university suggested the alleged attacker should be 'more careful in the future about putting himself in situations with female students which are open to misinterpretation'

Sophie McIntyre
Thursday 07 May 2015 18:11 BST
A former student is suing Oxford University over claims it failed to properly investigate her alleged rape by another student.
A former student is suing Oxford University over claims it failed to properly investigate her alleged rape by another student.

A former student is suing Oxford University over claims it failed to properly investigate her alleged rape by another student.

Elizabeth Ramey, 29, will suggest that the university’s policy not to investigate rape allegations, unless in exceptional circumstances, is unlawful and discriminatory, according to the Daily Telegraph.

Her application for judicial review will be heard tomorrow and is being funded by the Equality & Human Rights Commission.

It states that the university’s guidelines on harassment do not comply with equality law.

She describes them as "perverse" and likely to put women students at greater risk of assault.

"The more serious an assault upon a woman, the less likely the university will take action to investigate and potentially take disciplinary action," the papers state. The result for women students is very severe indeed."

Miss Ramey, who currently lives in Washington DC, was studying for an MA in African Studies when she reported that she was raped by a fellow student in June 2011.

She reported the incident to police and the university suspended the accused for three months.

However, after that time the CPS decided not to pursue the case due to lack of evidence.

At this point, Oxford University decided not to bring the alleged offender before an internal disciplinary panel, as there was little ‘tangible’ evidence.

It was suggested, via an internal memo, that the alleged attacker should be spoken to and advised to be 'more careful in the future about putting himself in situations with female students which are open to misinterpretation.'

The case was then closed.

Miss Ramey said: "The university has carved out a specific exception only for the most severe forms of sexual assault, which overwhelmingly affect women," she said.

"That is blatantly discriminatory. I want the university to remove the special exception that they’ve created and develop a system to investigate internally cases of sexual assault."

In the court papers, the university suggested that although it considered every case, it was unlikely to investigate allegations of sexual assault if the case had already been investigated by police.

An Oxford University spokesperson said: "The University is robustly defending this application on all grounds and Ms Ramey’s application has already been refused permission on the papers. The harassment policy was developed through consultation with students and other interested parties and had regard to practice across UK higher education generally."

Sarah Green, acting director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, has described the levels of sexual assault and harassment at UK universities as being at "crisis levels".

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