Jeremy Morris oversaw sexual harassment complaints against don who was readmitted despite student contact ban
The master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge University, has resigned over an allegation that he mishandled sexual harassment complaints in 2017, after an independent inquiry recommended the college initiate disciplinary action.
Jeremy Morris oversaw a sexual harassment case in 2019, in which Cambridge don Peter Hutchinson was readmitted to his college less than two years after he had been permanently excluded and banned from contacting students after an internal investigation.
Hutchinson, who had been accused of nearly a dozen incidents of inappropriate behaviour between 2014 and 2015, regained some college privileges in 2017 when he automatically became an emeritus professor after his retirement.
The college provoked widespread ire among staff and students when it defended its decision to restore Hutchinson’s access to the college for certain college events and to exercise his dining rights on grounds that the original decision to remove him had “not been agreed with Dr Hutchinson and was incorrect”.
Trinity Hall responded to the backlash by commissioning an independent inquiry led by Gemma White QC into the college’s handling of the allegations against Hutchinson.
