206

Title

Thilakawardhana, R (on the application of) v Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education & Anor

Date

17/01/2018

Country

ENGLAND and WALES (Europe)

Adjudication body

Court of Appeal

Case number

[2018] EWCA Civ 13

Main themes

Threats
Workplace relations and contracts 3

Type of expression

Dark humor
Meme or GIF
Social media

Decision direction

Mixed outcome

Outcome note

Appeal dismissed.

Link to case

Link to analysis

Summary

A Fitness to Practise Appeal Panel took the career-ending decision to terminate the Appellant's medical studies after he sent a threatening message to a fellow student (PS). This was in response to PS receiving and then distributing intimate photographs of a friend which were sent to him by mistake. The Appellant received permission to appeal in relation to the sanction.
The appellant was a student at the university of Leicester, where he had completed three years leading to a degree in medicine and had commenced a Bsc degree. A friend, and fellow student, PS was mistakenly sent some explicit photographs of the appellant’s friend which he distributed without permission. This led the appellant to post a meme containing the words 'I will look for you, I will find you. And I will kill you.' on PS’s Facebook page. He also wrote a private message to PS on Facebook containing the words " you fucked up! you cock sucker…. When you mess with a lankan [Sri Lankan], you mess with all of us……i don't want to see you on a night out in Leicester, or in the UK.
It was considered that in conjunction with the meme, this could be construed as threatening. About a month later PS complained to university staff and police but did not pursue criminal proceedings. The claimant was given a reprimand by the university, the least serious of possible penalties, but the university concluded that the Appellant had committed a "serious act of misconduct", which could not be ignored.
The conduct raised the question if he was fit to practise medicine. A university panel decided he was not, and that decision was upheld by an appeal panel of the university (the appeal panel) in July 2014. The appellant then made a claim to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA) but in May 2015 the OIA decided the complaint was not justified.
Following a renewed oral application, the appellant was granted permission to appeal on the question of sanction, on the basis that it was "just arguable that the reasons as to sanction and the process as to sanction starting from those findings were insufficiently structured".
The appellant argued that the sanction was not proportionate, the decision was inadequately reasoned and the original appeal panel failed to take into account the mitigation and guidance.
The Court dismissed the appeal.

A Fitness to Practise Appeal Panel took the career-ending decision to terminate the Appellant's medical studies after he sent a threatening message to a fellow student (PS). This was in response to PS receiving and then distributing intimate photographs of a friend which were sent to him by mistake. The Appellant received permission to appeal in relation to the sanction.
The appellant was a student at the university of Leicester, where he had completed three years leading to a degree in medicine and had commenced a Bsc degree. A friend, and fellow student, PS was mistakenly sent some explicit photographs of the appellant’s friend which he distributed without permission.  This led the appellant to post a meme containing the words 'I will look for you, I will find you. And I will kill you.' on PS’s Facebook page. He also wrote a private message to PS on Facebook containing the words " you fucked up! you cock sucker…. When you mess with a lankan [Sri Lankan], you mess with all of us……i don't want to see you on a night out in Leicester, or in the UK. 
It was considered that in conjunction with the meme, this could be construed as threatening. About a month later PS complained to university staff and police but did not pursue criminal proceedings. The claimant was given a reprimand by the university, the least serious of possible penalties, but the university concluded that the Appellant had committed a "serious act of misconduct", which could not be ignored.
The conduct raised the question if he was fit to practise medicine. A university panel decided he was not, and that decision was upheld by an appeal panel of the university (the appeal panel) in July 2014. The appellant then made a claim to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA) but in May 2015 the OIA decided the complaint was not justified. 
Following a renewed oral application, the appellant was granted permission to appeal on the question of sanction, on the basis that it was "just arguable that the reasons as to sanction and the process as to sanction starting from those findings were insufficiently structured".
The appellant argued that the sanction was not proportionate, the decision was inadequately reasoned and the original appeal panel failed to take into account the mitigation and guidance.
The Court dismissed the appeal.