By Gavin Mackintosh-
A renowned professor of economics trying to sue fellow academics London School Of Economics for sexual harassment insists he has been the victim of bullying due to his legal suit and is asking for £4m compensation.
Dr Theodore Piepenbrock- our professor of the week- told a tribunal there was a culture of heavy drinking and affairs between academics at the London School of Economics (LSE)
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The economist, seeking over £4m in compensation, described the respected LSE as an “orgy of debauchery”.
He claims LSE destroyed his career, following sexual harassment by Joanne Hay, now LSE’s deputy chief operating officer. and deputy dean at the department of management when Miss Hay entered and ‘appeared to be very drunk’.
He said: ‘After the doors closed, the woman approached me, put her hand on my chest, spoke close enough to me to smell alcohol on her breath.
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‘Miss Hay told me, “Please don’t hesitate to let me know if there is anything I can do to make your stay more pleasurable”.
‘I asked Miss Hay to take her hand off my chest and please to leave me alone.’
The Times reported how he filed a grievance report against her at LSE for ‘sexual assault, harassment and defamation’.
‘My rejection of Miss Hay appears to have caused a multi-year campaign of vengeance against me,’ he added.
Dr Piepenbrock also alleged a female teaching assistant became obsessed with him on a work trip. He said he had to dismiss the woman, Miss D, after she opened her hotel room naked from the waist down. He claims he was staying with the teaching assistant at a hotel in Boston during a work trip in November 2012 when she answered her door wearing only a jumper with either her genitals or underwear exposed.
He told LSE officials he was being harassed by her but was unaware Miss D also complained about him, alleging he told her she had ‘a beautiful body’ and threatened to ruin her reputation. He denies her allegations.
He went off work after suffering from depression and his contract was not renewed. LSE’s Head of Security, Dr Paul Thornbury, claims “harassment and discrimination against disabled staff is prevalent and deliberate” at the institution, and a “culture of elite exceptionalism” exists.
Complain by male professionals of sexual harassment from a female colleague are rare, but in this case the professional appears to have taken exception to alleged advances made to him in the work place. The legal suit has caught the attention of the entire LSE, well known for its world standard level of aacdemic excellence and research,
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