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Full possession of the facts

Written by Deirdre O'Shaughnessy

Thursday, 20 May 2010

#Fruitbatgate. If that looks like nonsense to you, read on. A word or phrase with the hash symbol in front of it, is called a 'hashtag'. It's a device used on Twitter to show that you are referencing a scandal, story, company or person. And the scandalous ones almost always have 'gate' at the end of them, after the infamous Watergate scandal that toppled Richard Nixon - #Bertiegate, #Willygate, #Climategate, and now #fruitbatgate.

If you're an avid newspaper or online media follower, you'll have spotted this one as early as this time last week, when the details – some of the details – of #fruitbatgate became public.

A UCC lecturer has come out publicly to protest against sanctions imposed on him by UCC after a complaint made about his "inappropriate” behaviour by a colleague. The complaint was made after he showed a peer-reviewed article about the sexual habits of the fruitbat to the colleague. His cause has been taken up by the Irish Federation of University Teachers, and he has started an online petition, signed by high profile academics including the provost of King's College Cambridge. The issue has even received coverage in the Huffington Post (a US based news site) and the London Times.

However, one of the first rules of journalism is to question everything, and, while I'm an avid fan of blogging and social media, not all bloggers (some do) follow the same rules as journalists do. Not all journalists do, either, mind, but usually there is some effort to get both sides of a story before printing, rather than waiting for the other party to get upset and retort. One newspaper went a strange way about getting both sides of the story – by printing the name and picture of the woman who'd accused Dr Evans of sexual harassment. Granted, it was her own choice not to comment, but this does say something about the way in which sexual harassment cases are treated.

Further thought by some bloggers – one of whom is himself a respected economist, Dr Stephen Kinsella of the University of Limerick – led them to withdraw support from Dr Evans, because they realised that only one side of the story was out there.

Dr Evans' clever use of social media and campaigning, even PR, has put him in a good position in this case; he appears to be a diligent academic, worried about freedom of speech, and the complainant appears to be just that, a whingeing woman who believes every mention of sexuality, no matter of what species, is an affront to her.

But it's not that simple. Most workplaces have codes of conduct in relation to these matters – and a workplace like UCC, with a large and diverse staff, has, you can be sure, a very clear policy on sexual harassment and interpersonal relations.

And while some people have a close relationship with colleagues where an article like that might be considered funny, a history of bad relations or of inappropriate comments or contact can sour the joke and make life uncomfortable or downright difficult.

Sexual harassment procedures are in place for a reason. While the team appointed to investigate did not find that Dr Evans' behaviour in the preceding period was not inappropriate, it upheld the fruitbat complaint. Perhaps the outcome was wrong; but, without knowing all the facts, it's not up to bloggers, columnists or commentators such as myself to make a judgment. That can only be done with full possession of the facts.

Comments (3) »

Dylan Evans Wins the ? Prize Global Conspiracy @ UCC
written by Victor, May 24, 2010

We can now reveal the massive global Pharma/ Academic conspiracy that Dylan Evans, aka The Pink Panther, aka Austin Powers, has uncovered, – the crafty intrepid, crazy investigator that he is–

Now Evans has changed his story— yet again! — today he claims, in the Irish Daily Mail, that the whole # fruitbatgate thing was a hit job on him because he was investigating a vast secret conspiracy between Pharma and Academia— yawn

quote from a blogger

” The way you expose a pharmaceutical-funding corruption scandal is to show a paper on bat fellatio to the wife of a possible corruptee.
Works every time.”

see —http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/05/bat_sex_is_not_protected_by_ac.php

Evans has completely lost his marbles– time for the white coats and the funny farm again, like when he went psychotic after his Scottish commune blew up.

Evans has done a lot of damage to the cause of Academic Freedom by crying wolf, lying and, in the end going bat-shit crazy

Decision Scientist
written by Victor, May 23, 2010

There are two matters, the second 2 is the focus now

1/ What happened last Nov and the follow up investigation by independent outside investigators.

We do not have the evidence in that matter

All we know about it is what Evans chose to selectively post on the Web along with his petition, which frames him as the poor victim of some draconian strangling of his academic free speech– pathetic– and he has changed his story on that at least 4 times.

2/ What Evans did last week and apparently continues to do–that is—
Posting Strictly Confidential UCC material on the web, defaming and making outrageous allegation allegations on the Web and in the press that
Defame his employer UCC
Defame his colleagues at UCC
Defame his students at UCC
All this material is on the Web, we have all the evidence in the public domain,

If I were Dr Kennedy– the complainant– I would sue Evans for every penny he has and every penny he will ever make moving forward.
Evans will loose such a case, in our opinion, and he will have to pay both sides legal costs in addition to handing over his current assets and all future earnings–
Evans brought this on himself this last week by his own behavior– which is documented and attributable directly to Evans.
His petition will do him no good in these matters, in fact it will harm him, as he misrepresented the the facts in his call for petition–that will open him to potential class action litigation from all who signed it so far.

In addition, this matter will bring intense scrutiny to Evans whole life after his 18th yr.
Eg
1/Did he represent himself as an engineer, biologist or psychologist when his degree is in philosophy only?
2/Is there any history of plagiarism or fraud?
3/What are the implications of his history of medical psychiatric treatments and illness?
4/Did he lie on his application for employment at UCC?
5/How about a history of alcohol/ drug abuse, sexual assault?

Evans brought the lawyers on stage by his actions this last week, and they will go through his whole life with a fine tooth comb– everything will be made public.

Again Evans brought the lawyers on by his behavior last week, if he had just STFU — no troubles– a slap on the wrist– but because of his behavior over the last few days—-

Now he is in very serious trouble and alone

What is that song by the Police?

“Every move you make, every breath you take, we will be watching you”

That appears to be Evans fate– what a case of Zero Decision Intelligence—

Decision Scientist
written by Victor, May 22, 2010

At this point the case is way beyond the matter of the fruit bat paper.

The issue is Evans behavior this week on the Web in which—

1/ He has accused UCC of conspiring with drug companies and others to punish him and silence him

2/ He has accused a senior UCC faculty member and officer of conspiring, with his wife– the complainant– to file false charges against him for personal gain and motives.

3/ He has accused the complainant of conspiring with her husband, a UCC officer and faculty member, of conspiring to fire another UCC employee for personal gain and motives.

4/ Has released Strictly Confidential UCC documents on his Face Book site

5/ He has released, what he claims are personal emails, from the complainant without consent and with no proof that they, in fact, genuine.

He did this in an attempt to portray her as a liar and as guilty of filing false allegations

6/ He has made written allegations prejudicious to UCC in a separate matter that is under litigation

7/ He has trashed UCC, its faculty and its reputation.

8/ He has trashed his students and labeled them as crazy radical Christian fanatics

On Thursday in a Cork paper he alleged that the complainant released the strictly confidential UCC documents-- yet they first appeared on his FaceBook site last Saturday.

The complainant would have to have used Evans password to post those documents on his site --- or to have hacked his site -- in which case it would be a serious criminal matter.

And that is some of the milder stuff– before breakfast– as it were.

Evans made all these allegations numerous times on the web in the last few days, where they are permanent, pervasive and search-able.

The above matters are the issue now, not the fruit bat kerfuffle

Evans may be in very serious trouble indeed, WAY more serious and beyond any fruit bat incidents.

Evans is an employee of UCC---- in most cases an employee of any University or a private firm who did what Evans has done on the Web in the last few days would be escorted off campus by campus police, excluded from its IT network, banned from Campus-- and his academic career would be over.

If he were an employee of a private firm he would be facing very severe civil and ,very possibly, criminal consequences.

Evans claims to know about Risk Intelligence.

In Risk Science the is a key rule.------

" Never take a bet so big that you can never make a bet again if you loose "

This is what Evans has done this week in his posting and allegations on the Web.

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