Case

Jayasinghe v University of Tasmania (2025)

A university lecturer was dismissed after the employer found that allegations of sexual harassment made by a university student against the employee were substantiated.

The lecturer had originally reached out to the university student to invite her to be a research assistant on his project. Following this, he regularly sent text messages of a sexual nature to the student and suggested that they should meet up outside of the research project. The lecturer also visited the bar where the student worked and met her at the university gym. After multiple text messages suggesting that the two meet outside of the university, the student sent a text message to the lecturer, stating that she wanted to ensure that she was on the research project due to her professional capabilities and was happy to maintain a friendship with him, provided it was “purely platonic”. The lecturer acknowledged this and replied that he intended to keep the relationship professional. However, he continued to send text messages of a sexual nature and purchased a gift worth $190 for the student. The lecturer claimed that gift-giving was a customary practice in his culture.