{"id":3806,"date":"2026-06-13T06:13:54","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T05:13:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=3806"},"modified":"2026-06-13T19:06:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T18:06:00","slug":"cambridge-whistleblowing-tribunal-background","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=3806","title":{"rendered":"Cambridge Whistleblowing Tribunal: Background"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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As Prof Wyn Evans has finally finished testifying, the background to the case can be given, using material disclosed in open court. This includes the witness statements of the Claimant (Prof Wyn Evans), the recent Kavli Prize winner (Prof Vasily Belokurov<\/a>), the Shaw Prize Winner (Prof George Efstathiou<\/a>), as well as Prof Martin Haehnelt and Dr Gudrun Tausch-Pebody. These witness statements are now in the public domain and may be quoted. There are available to read by signing up here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of events at Cambridge University’s Institute of Astronomy<\/a> (IoA) in 2021 need never have been made public. Prof Wyn Evans wanted matters resolved internally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2023, there appeared a blog posting called the ‘Bullying of Hannelore<\/a>‘ on the popular astronomy website ‘In the Dark<\/em>‘ run by Prof Peter Coles. It describes what happened at the IoA in 2021. ‘Hannelore’ can now be named (with her permission) as Dr Gudrun Tausch-Pebody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has always been Prof Wyn Evans’ position that the name of the Professor at the centre of the bullying allegations is not important. Here we will call him Prof A. What is important is the institutional response to the disclosures of alleged serious bullying by Prof A made by Profs Wyn Evans (and Martin Haehnelt).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prof Wyn Evans alerted the Head of School (Prof Nigel Peake<\/a>, Master Elect of Darwin College) and the then Deputy Directors (Profs Chris Reynolds<\/a> and Anthony Challinor<\/a>) through a number of disclosures, including an email and a document called ‘the Delays Document’. These are also now in the public domain available by sign-up<\/a>. A redacted and slightly shortened version of the email to Prof Peake is below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dear Nigel Peake,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am writing to you because I am very concerned about Gudrun Pebody.  She seems to me to be in a fragile state of mind. (We have been interacting a lot over the examinations and the ORP grant).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

She is a valuable member of staff at the Institute of Astronomy, and of course we owe her a duty of care — as we do for all our Cambridge colleagues.  Gudrun believes that [REDACTED] is trying to make her unemployed.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 She has good reason. There is indeed overwhelming evidence that Prof A is planning to make her unemployed, as part of a personal vendetta.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regrettably, the IoA has a terrible record of support for female administrative staff. [REDACTED], [REDACTED] was hounded out a job (the Department had to pay her compensation). [REDACTED] also came to believe that Prof A was trying to sack her & left a frightened woman<\/em>. [REDACTED].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a bad history of misogyny to female administrators at the top of the IoA. I am terrified of history repeating itself here.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps this is out of an abundance of caution, but in these matters, it is better to be cautious … and compassionate.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Wyn Evans<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Cambridge University’s Whistleblowing policy is given here<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An external review of the matter by an external barrister, Mr Jeremy Scott-Joynt<\/a>, concluded that the actions of Prof Wyn Evans amounted to whistleblowing as there was “a risk to the health or safety of any individual<\/em>“. There are multiple independent statements that allege an emergency had arisen at the IoA by July 2021 because of the treatment of Dr Tausch-Pebody by Prof A.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whistleblowers are protected under the Employment Act (1996) from retaliation or other detriments. Prof Evans’ alleges that he was retaliated against by Prof A and the University, including the School of Physical Sciences Human Resources (HR) division. This is led by Ms Louise Akroyd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not disputed that Prof A raised a Grievance<\/a> against Prof Evans (and two other Professors at the IoA). It is agreed that Prof A’s Grievance made a series of claims unsupported by any evidence. It was advanced to the formal stage by Prof Peake and investigated by Mr Scott-Joynt. After nearly two years, the University concluded that no evidence had been provided.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a year had elapsed with no sign of Cambridge University’s investigation into him ending, Prof Evans hired solicitors who wrote to Prof A asking him to withdraw his allegations. Prof A refused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prof Wyn Evans then took legal action (defamation)<\/a> against Prof A. This ended with Prof A conceding that his allegations against Wyn Evans were untrue. Prof A’s legal expenses were supported via the University’s insurance policy (wholly or partially) throughout this matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prof Evans alleges that he was severely victimised by making protected disclosures, as the University subjected him to a lengthy investigation into a matter could quickly have been established as groundless. Further, he alleged that the University has failed in its duty of care to protect the mental health of a number of members of staff at the IoA, and especially Dr Gudrun Tausch-Pebody, Profs Wyn Evans, Martin Haehnelt and Prof A.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The University’s defence of its actions eventually involved the former Registrary (Emma Rampton) and the current Vice Chancellor (Prof Deborah Prentice) in the matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Although Prof A’s name is in the public domain, we ask that you do not identify him. We appreciate Dr Tausch-Pebody\u2019s bravery in allowing herself to be named).<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Prof Wyn Evans has finally finished testifying, the background to the case can be given, using material disclosed in open court. This includes the witness statements of the Claimant (Prof Wyn Evans), the recent Kavli Prize winner (Prof Vasily Belokurov), the Shaw Prize Winner (Prof George Efstathiou), as well […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3806"}],"version-history":[{"count":35,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3853,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3806\/revisions\/3853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}