the times | Monday December 6 2021 2GM 3
News
When Dame Helen Ghosh became the
first female master of Balliol College,
Oxford, she might have hoped for a qui-
eter posting than her previous roles as
director of the National Trust or per-
manent secretary of the Home Office.
Now she, and the 750-year-old col-
lege, are facing accusations of not
having properly dealt with sexual
assault claims.
Hundreds of students, along with the
Labour MP Jess Phillips, have signed an
open letter to the college and held a
protest at its carol service, standing up
and turning their backs whenever the
chaplain or Ghosh spoke.
Balliol, the alma mater of Boris John-
son and Dame Cressida Dick, made the
majority of its offers to female students
for the first time in 2019, the year after
Ghosh became the first female master.
A postgraduate student called Har-
riet said that she had been repeatedly
sexually assaulted in 2019 by a fellow
student and claimed that staff made
K
wasi
Kwarteng, the
energy
secretary, has
criticised
energy firms for the
“unacceptable” response
to Storm Arwen, which
left some people without
power for more than a
week as the country
prepared for a secondbout of extreme weather
(Neil Johnston writes).
Thousands of people
are still without power
after the “extensive and
catastrophic damage”
caused by the storm,
which hit nine days ago
and has been called the
worst in 60 years.
Three thousand
homes, mostly in the
northeast of England,
were still waiting to be
reconnected yesterday.
More disruption is
expected with the
arrival tomorrow of the
second storm this
winter, Storm Barra.
A yellow weather
warning is in place for
most of the UK with upto 10cm of snow possible
in some areas. Winds of
45mph to 50mph are
expected with 60mph
gusts near the coast.
As engineers
continued to try to
reconnect homes
yesterday Kwarteng said
that no one should still
be without power. “For
99.5 per cent of people
they’re back on, but for
the ones that are still
having to put up with
this, this is
unacceptable,” he told
the BBC in Durham,
He added that if
energy firms were found
to have failed to invest in
infrastructure then
“there could beenforcement action”.
The regulator Ofgem
has said that it will take
action against network
companies that failed to
restore power quickly
and it has also agreed to
lift the £700 cap on
compensation.
Stewart Sexton, 57,
from Alnwick,
Northumberland, was on
day ten without power.
He said he had been told
“it would be on by close
of play today”.
Royal Marine
commandos have been
brought in to help with
the recovery. Yesterday
they made door-to-door
checks on vulnerable
people.Power still
out amid
new storm
warnings
A Lake District
fell-top
weather
assessor on
Helvellyn as
Storm Barra
bore down on
the country in
a “double
weather
bomb”STEPHEN ASHWORTHadding: “In recent communications the
master has urged students to come for-
ward with ideas, placing the onus on
students to reach out, rather than the
college taking an active role. Informa-
tion has focused on helping students
report complaints in the correct
way, rather than the responsibility
being upon those in college admin-
istration to handle it correctly.”
It demands an admission of
failure by the college in the wider
culture and procedures relating
to sexual abuse, that staff be held
accountable and receive training
and a review of cases over the
past three years.
Harriet said after she
spoke out that Balliol hadOxford students rise up over assault claims
inappropriate comments about her
appearance and behaviour. The college
has announced an independent inquiry
into its handling of her complaint.
The open letter said that university
systems had proved unfit to deal with
allegations of sexual abuse and had in
some cases suppressed the voices of
survivors. It was responding to an
investigation by the television station
Al-Jazeera about the handling of sexual
abuse within the university.
The letter, by a group calling itself
Balliol Community for Safety, said:
“Staff members prioritised the reput-
ation of the college above the safety and
wellbeing of the student.”
Some staff had perpetuated “a cul-
ture of victim blaming, compounding
the trauma of sexual abuse with an
inadequate and harmful response” and
others “demonstrated incompetence
and a consistent willingness to protect
the college’s reputation at the expense
of serious allegations”, it said.
The group said that the college had
not taken responsibility for its failures,become more adversarial. She told Al-
Jazeera that the chaplain, who is head
of welfare, asked her if she was aware of
the effect that she had on men, called
her very attractive and said that she
should be wary of the impact of her
claims on her alleged attacker.
She said that he had also said: “You
don’t want to piss people off who you
might meet again downstream.” When
she reapplied for disability access
accommodation she had communica-
tion with the praefectus, or head
of the graduate centre, imply-
ing that her behaviour,
including drinking, was a
problem. She said that she
was denied a chance to
submit any supporting
evidence, such as her
medical records and a
friend’s testimony.
Fiónn McFadden, a
founder of Balliol
Community for
Safety, said: “All we
want is for studentsin the college to feel safe and, when that
safety is interrupted, that they can turn
to these welfare systems that are sup-
posed to protect them and not feel like
their problems are going to be made
worse.”
Oxford University Labour Club told
The Oxford Student that they were dis-
appointed and outraged at how claims
of sexual abuse had been dealt with.
A statement from the college and on
behalf of Ghosh, the chaplain and the
praefectus, given to The Guardian, said
there were “factual inaccuracies” in the
account of Harriet’s experience but it
would be inappropriate to comment
further given the pending inquiry. It
said that a QC would be appointed to
conduct the inquiry and the college was
“committed to acting on the lessons
which emerge from the inquiry”.
It said: “The college continues to of-
fer support to those involved and in par-
allel has also initiated an externally
supported general review of its welfare
provision, to which Balliol students are
being encouraged to contribute.”Nicola Woolcock Education Editor Dame Helen
Ghosh, master of
Balliol College, is
facing protests
ttffddddddddmm