Breaking news … the Vice Chancellor of Cambridge University, Prof Deborah Prentice, is one of the respondents found to have caused detriment against a whistleblower.
More to come …
Blog · 10 Aug 2026
Crushing Victory at the Employment Tribunal
61 comments
Holy fuck! Congratulations!!
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Congratz, Wyn. Now let’s see if she does not leave.
They all need to leave! Can we talk about REDACTED now?
Good point — we are releasing all the comments that were held back
Do you mean the most discussed Lead HR Business Partner in the 21 Group?
I have a friendly suggestion for her: “Update your LinkedIn profile”
I offer my sincere congratulations to you, Wyn Evans. You have done the university a great service through your dedication and tenacity. We all look forward to reading the full judgement.
The best news. Congratulations!
Congratulations!
Massive Congratulations to you and your legal team!
It is a glorious day for all those who suffered injustice at the hands of these bastards in the past.
Congratulations Prof. Evans (and to all that helped make this happen)!
This isn’t just a great service to UCam, but to the entire HE sector. Thank you.
Others will follow, and my turn will come soon enough (at another institution). Stay tuned.
They are going to lose every case from now on. What a clusterfuck for HR and the Legal Division!
Can you release hand-written transcripts of the cross examinations to the media? Can someone?
“How do I get out of here?”
A well deserved victory Wyn. I act for a number of Cambridge students against the Cambridge University establishment, when I speak to course leaders/academics/professors the no1 thing they say is “remember it is not us you are litigating against, It is legal services, we have no control over this”. In contrast to all other education institutions I work with, I find this wholly bizarre.
It’s now a determination of fact, folks.
Cambridge University retaliates against whistleblowers.
@Facts
Thank you for underscoring this point.
Can’t wait for all the other retaliation cases to reach the courts. This going to be like Groundhog Day again and again for months if not years.
Please post the full judgment on the website!!!
So many congratulations!! You fought this case on principle against overwhelming odds, and your courage and tenacity are remarkable. Your victory is richly deserved.
David Parsons must be regretting the day he decided to try to crush you. He must have thought that he had the overwhelming advantage in resources (essentially a blank cheque from the university, underwritten by student fees and the taxpayer).
It truly is a David vs Goliath victory.
All of these university legal people are members of AULP and go to their annual conferences to compare notes and congratulate each other. Hopefully the organisers will ask David Parsons to talk about his latest triumph.
Fun fact: the automatic message of Mr David Parsons reads:
“Thank you for your email. Please note that I am on leave until Friday 14 August and I will not be able to attend to your email before my return to the office. “
SRA will have to investigate this now. No way they can ignore a court judgement that finds solicitors complicit in whistleblower retaliation. It is curtains for Parsons and Gardner.
Parsons and his team are so fucked right now. There’s going to be an investigation in to why Zurich paid costs for someone found guilty of defamation at High Court, then there’s the questions about who approved hiring Carter-Ruck to threaten journalists. Add that to their defeat at High Court last year when he was named as part of the “Gold Team” that decided to ban student protests and you have a whirlwind of fuck heading their way.
How can Cambridge keep people on who are going to be spending all their time fighting further investigations against them personally? It is surely misconduct and grounds for immediate termination if a court has already determined as such. Indeed arguably, it would be misconduct to keep them employed if that fact is already settled.
It is surely time to for the next scene in the Downfall satire.
Over 200,000 views on the first downfall sketch. Next stop – the quarter of a million views mark
Quarter million mark looms. People can’t get enough of it
Absolutely brilliant!
Well done Wyn.
The VC will be needing a stiff G&T tonight.
Or a flight back to the US!
Sadly the US has an extradition treaty. She may wish to consider Russia, Iran, or the United Arab Emirates…
OMG. We need to celebrate!!! Well done. I’m so pleased for you. Your tenacity and perseverance to endure all their nastiness – I’m so so happy the judging panel saw the injustice too!!!
Quick note. The judgment shows that Deborah Prentice was ruled to have violated UK law on 10 counts.
Full judgment will be posted tomorrow.
So many questions…
1 – Will Professor Prentice remain as a Fellow of Christ’s College after this? Did she not report conflicts of interest when she joined the Fellowship later in 2024 about this case?
2 – Will Darwin College need a new Master? Did Prof. Peake report conflicts of interest when he applied for the position a few months ago?
3 – What about the ranking of Financial Times? Will they be forced to retract it and apologize to the victims of serious abuses at Cambridge University?
…
FT will have to issue a formal retraction. It is just an embarrassment for the newspaper otherwise.
If not other newspapers will be beating them over the head with it until the end of time. How can you stand by an organisation as “employer of the year” when a court just ruled that they retaliate against their own employees? They need to be taken off the top 500 list just like they were last year.
I have just sent an email to Financial Times giving them the news and asked them to retract that ranking that is an humiliation for all the victims of bullying and harassment at Cambridge, as I have been asking them for months. I cc-ed the senior leadership as I had done in the past.
Congratulations! It’s good to see that they made the right decision, particularly after what you and others have been through.
Once again, just as in the Arday case, this is Cambridge hypocrisy, on full display.
But this time, it goes right to the very top.
The Vice Chancellor who is the softy psychologist – who writes about social norms, “pluralistic ignorance” and human rights – found guilty of engaging in institutional bullying and silencing of dissent.
Utterly disgusting.
“But this time, it goes right to the very top.”
Exactly as in the Arday case.
I wonder how many other VCs (or Acting VCs) in the UK have backgrounds in psychology, working specifically on group dynamics? Perhaps they, more than most, should know better.
Congratulations, Wyn! Your case gives hope to many whistleblowers at Keele, including us, despite the huge detriment we have faced. Your courage and determination give us strength to keep going.
well done! This news has made my day.
Too thrilled for words when I think of Wyn and his family being able to breathe the deepest sign of relief at last, this victory could not be more well deserved, I feel almost speechless with joy for Wyn and everyone.
We, the victims, are thankful for British justice, hugely grateful for the support and “incredibly” relieved.
And then suddenly, Varsity publishes an article on Arday:
https://www.varsity.co.uk/news/31918
“The University’s vice-chancellor, Deborah Prentice, is facing demands to refund the tuition fees of students taught by Arday, who claim that they were “deceived by their education”. I guess she will face other demands now…
It may go to the top but they are planning to throw the bottom feeders in education into the fire and save their own skins.
Congratulations to Wyn Evans and his legal team.
Thank you very much indeed for taking a stand. You have fought an extremely vicious fight for the greater good and been victorious. It is a powerful message for every whistleblower.
Good. Now whoever replaces Prentice will know – from Day 1 in the role – that if they engage in the same culture of lies, negligence and cover-ups, then one day they will face exactly the same humiliating downfall and epitaph.
Now why is it that HR has used Akua Reindorf as an ‘independent investigator’ on grievances against people even though she is their barrister, that is, the University’s barrister? That makes her not very ‘independent.’
@Madam-Speaker: Thank you for posting this. This is obviously a major problem.
Do you have further details that you can provide on this that can be referenced? This matter will be vitally important not just for UCam, but for other upcoming Employment Tribunal cases against other institutions. This problem is sector wide, and must be tackled collectively.
Please consider sharing details where possible, or send to 21 Group. It’s important to know how these ‘investigations’ were handled.
There is a similar case at another institution where HR had been relying on advice from a legal firm throughout their unlawful multiple-year persecution campaign against an innocent Whistleblower. They used this same firm to conduct a ‘dismissal investigation’ to get rid of the Whistleblower (which was handled corruptly in every way of course). The same firm are now defending the University (hired by the same individuals in HR) at an upcoming employment Tribunal. These people are totally out of control, and it’s the same story right across the sector.
I’m happy to share more details on this other similar case either directly or via 21 Group.
Well done Wyn Evans and team. You have done a wonderful service for the greater good of us all.
Paul, you have done a great service to the community too. Thank you. Your R still didn’t learn its lesson and believes the institution is there to serve the few.
Why the fuck did they let this case go to court? It is a massive humiliation for the university and hugely damaging to reputation, as if it could sustain any more after the past few weeks. The legal team should resign for that reason alone. Are they completely incompetent? Did they ask alumni for an opinion? Or do they simply not care to see the Cambridge name dragged through the mud while they collect their fees?
The court case has done huge damage to the reputation of the Institute of Astronomy
We can only hope that now the judgment is out, huge damage is done to the Human Resources & Legal divisions, who caused most of the problems
The precedent has been set. That’s the hard part. Now, every future case is simply pushing at an open door.
I attended the hearing – a couple of times in person. This is an amazing results for Wyn, family and legal team. I remember the lady from UCam legal/HR giving thumbs up with the Akua Reinhardt and sharing smug smiles. Are they still……
This is disgusting and entirely unfitting of the decency of the university community. To see a respected professor treated in such a way by legal lowlives who give the “thumbs-up” to the most foul pressure tactics. They have to resign. For shame.
Congratulations. Congratulations Professor and family.
Andi Hudson, least competent person, and god knows her predecessor was bad enough, must step down with immediate effect. Good for Munir he’s already been let go but there should be punishment of some kind, surely? Frankly the whole lot needs to be cleared out & a fresh start initiated. On Akua Reindorf the less said the better though there are people here who are no doubt fans of her vicious public pronouncements.
The Tribunal judgment repeatedly deflects Ms Reindorf’s behaviour onto the institution. This is how the respondents wanted to fight it.
Well done Wyn for surviving 5 years of deep organisational irrationality & for recreating the real Cambridge experience in Bury St Edmunds for the employment judges.
“Our task was a complex one because it was not always clear who had been
responsible for the detriments; who had been the real decision-makers; and
how decisions had been reached.”
It’s no less complex for those on the receiving end of it who have even less information to work with and who could be left without any mechanism to query any of the decision making.