Former science dean ‘faked threats to gain sympathy’

A former Sydney academic, who claimed to have received death threats over a course restructure, has been convicted of faking a campaign of harassment against herself.

Dianne Jolley, who served as dean of science at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), was found guilty of 10 counts of knowingly conveying false or misleading information to make people fear for her safety.

She was also found guilty of dishonestly causing a financial disadvantage, after UTS reportedly spent more than A$127,000 (£68,000) on security measures to protect her.

According to media reports, Dr Jolley was accused of sending letters, notes and cards to herself and UTS colleagues to create the impression that she was in danger. The practice was designed to kindle “emotional and physical” support after she struck resistance to a plan to close down the university’s traditional Chinese medicine course, according to The Guardian.

She claimed to have been intimidated by members of the Chinese community during travels between work and home, and to have received a handwritten note threatening to give her photo to the Chinese mafia.

Other notes said “you chop our future, we chop yours”, “I know where you live” and “I watch you, I see what you do, you’re not safe”, according to The Age.

New South Wales district court judge Ian Bourke had earlier ordered not guilty verdicts on another nine counts, including three of sending letters to create the impression of risk to other UTS staff – reportedly by mailing herself and colleagues letters ostensibly smeared with laboratory-grown bacteria.

The earlier hearing, on 12 July, reportedly heard evidence that Dr Jolley had been captured on video typing up one of the threatening letters. It read: “We have removed a dean before and can do it again. You don’t belong here. You are not wanted here. Either leave or we will do it.”

Dr Jolley reportedly admitted producing the note but said that she had been recording a threat she had heard the previous day outside a campus bathroom.

She faces sentencing later this year. UTS has declined to comment while the matter is before the court.

An environmental chemist and toxicologist, Dr Jolley resigned from UTS in March last year. She has also worked as an associate dean at the University of Wollongong and is currently a visiting scientist at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, according to her LinkedIn profile.

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com