A LECTURER AT the University of Galway has launched High Court proceedings over what he claims is his wrongful suspension from his job following a “false accusation” that he engaged in sexual activity in his office with a female student.

The action has been brought by Nigel Roberts who is a lecturer at the University’s School of Podiatric Medicine which studies and trains professionals about conditions of the foot and lower limbs.

Roberts says that he was wrongfully suspended from his position in early February 2022 after he claims a colleague with an adjoining office to his claims to have “heard noises of an intimate nature, suggestive of some form of sexual activity” having occurred in the applicant’s office.

He denies ever having sexual relations with the student in question and says that the ongoing investigation into the allegation is flawed and should be halted.

He claims that the complaint was made by a colleague who Roberts says, “bears me considerable ill will”, has made other complaints against him and holds a significant “animus” against him.

Roberts said that “no sexual activity whatsoever occurred in my office” on the date in question, and the accusation is “an egregious libel.”

He says that the student, who he said he does not know terribly well, has confirmed this to investigators appointed by the University. However he remains suspended and has been out of work for over a year resulting in on-going and extremely significant damage to his reputation, career and health.

As a result, Roberts, represented by Oisin Quinn SC with Ray Ryan Bl, has brought High Court proceedings against the University where he seeks various orders including an injunction halting an on-going investigation into the allegation against him, and an order lifting his suspension allowing him to return to work.

The matter was mentioned before Justice Brian O’Moore during today’s sitting of the High Court.

The judge, on an ex-parte basis, granted the lecturer permission to serve short notice of the proceedings on the university.

The matter will return before the High Court early next week.

In a sworn statement to the court Roberts, a 59-year-old married father of two from Roscahill, Co Galway who has worked at the university since 2009 said that in early 2022 a student had attended at his office.

He said she was extremely upset and had visited his office for personal guidance on a particular matter. 

He said that because the student was extremely distressed, he placed a laminated sign on the door of his office indicating that he was “in a private meeting”, and “was not to be disturbed”.

He said that the colleague who alleged made the complaint also furnished him with audio recordings of the events of the day in question.

Those recordings, Roberts says, do not in any way indicate any sexual activity and no clear or discernible sound of any kind can be made out on them.

He said that a barrister has been appointed to investigate the allegation, after an initial internal probe was stood down after it was found to have departed from the course of natural justice.

He claims that the latest investigation being conducted by the lawyer is also flawed, on grounds including that the university has never properly articulated exactly what the allegation against him is.

He claims that the investigation cannot proceed under the college’s staff code of conduct and that it is wrong of the university to maintain his suspension where no actual complainant exists.

The college, he adds, has possession of documents from the student, who made it clear that no sexual activity occurred.

No reasonable employer would maintain an investigation in such circumstances, he claims.

He further claims that the terms of reference of the on-going investigation are not clear, and no clarity has been provided to him how the proposed process is to proceed.

He added that under the terms of his suspension he is not allowed to attend the university and says that his suspension has caused him immense and extremely damaging reputational damage.

His case, he also adds, has been the subject of an article that appeared in the national media.