Exeter University has expelled a number of the law students who wrote wildly racist comments on a WhatsApp group.
The law students had sent messages on a group chat called the "Dodgy Blokes Soc" where they used racial epithets to refer to their peers. Two of the students were on the committee of the university's Bracton Law Society. Matthew Bell was the society's General Secretary and Alex Crawford was the pro bono officer. The other students exposed were Ash Chandraharan, who had been running this year to become the society's General Secretary, first year law student Bailey Grant and second year law student James Cranstone.
Exeter University launched an internal investigation in March, when the WhatsApp group messages were exposed by a fellow student. A university spokeswoman told RollOnFriday that the investigation has now concluded and that "the outcomes have included expulsions, suspensions and other significant sanctions", subject to appeal. She did not divulge which punishments were handed out to each student. She added that the university "does not tolerate any form of racist, sexist or bigoted behaviour and is committed to eradicating any instances of discrimination and harassment that may arise".
Screengrabs of the chat were exposed in March on Twitter and Facebook by Exeter Uni Law student Arsalan Motavali who said "I refuse to stand by and let such people who speak in these terms go on to recruit at future law firms" while "cowering behind their phone and talking like this about people that are part of the society they represent".
In the chat, the students had frequently used terms such as "n***er", "coon" and "monkey". In one exchange, Bell suggested organising a social "where we invite pure ragheads and turn them away". Grant replied that they should hold the event in South Africa as it would mean "we could add in gang rape" and they could "buy blacks in bulk". Crawford replied "you only need to go as far as Mauritania to get slaves. Much cheaper".
The next General Secretary of the Bracton Law Society |
This week the university's vice chancellor Steve Smith sent an email to the university's students saying that the "behaviour of the kind exhibited by some members of the Bracton Law Society will not be tolerated by the University". He encouraged "anyone else who been subject to, or witnessed, racism, bigotry, abuse or harassment to please come forward".
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