Content note: this article contains discussion of offences of a sexual nature.

The University of Cambridge has released a statement condemning Alexander Woolf, a former Cambridge undergraduate who was convicted of sexual offences last week (18/08).

Woolf, who read Music at Cambridge from 2013 to 2016, downloaded clothed images from the Internet of 15 women, all of whom he was acquainted with, and posted them to Reddit, asking for their faces to be pasted onto porn actresses’ bodies.

He later uploaded the edited pictures to adult websites.

Woolf, avoiding prison, was ordered to undertake a 40-day rehabilitation programme, spend 40 sessions on a sex offender programme and undertake 180 hours of unpaid work.

The University stated it was “appalled by the crimes of Alexander Woolf and extends its full sympathy to his victims. A number of the women he targeted came to know Woolf while he was an undergraduate at Cambridge and it is hard to comprehend the sense of shock and betrayal they must be experiencing. The University does not tolerate sexual abuse or harassment and urges anyone affected to report it immediately.”

Cambridge described that it was “unaware of [Woolf’s] crimes until the court case closed on August 18th.”

Although Woolf was not employed in a teaching capacity by the Music Faculty, in the days since the court case, it has come to light that he supervised several students on an occasional basis at a college.

The University stated that “The college strongly supports the University’s stance on harassment and sexual misconduct, and is in the process of contacting those students to offer support and to ensure that they have not been affected”.