Averil Hart
who died as a result of failures by
University of East Anglia
Our Meeting with the Vice Chancellor at UEA, Professor David Richarson
After a long wait and numerous emails we were finally allowed an audience with the Vice Chancellor of UEA.
It appeared that he had important business in the Far East, maybe to attract more foreign students.
After what seemed like a long wait in the lobby, he invited me into his luxurious offices. It may seem strange but his introduction about the heritage of the furniture in his office seemed particularly strange, especially the fact that it was donated by some dignitary. Maybe this was because he was out of his depth, maybe because he didn't have worlds to express sympathy, or maybe because I was an intrusion in his otherwise orderly diary.
Vice Chancellor at University of East Anglia, Professor David Richardson
The Vice Chancellor gave the impression that he was far too important to be involved with the death of a student.
However, after considerable discussion he finally agreed to two investigations into why the UEA had failed in its duty of care and how the UEA had failed to respond to Averil's family.
What we didn't realise at the time was that he would sit on the first report for several months without letting Averil's family see it and that the second report into our complaint about the UEA would never be commissioned.
Sadly it's the same old story of the establishment burying bad news, and being high handed and less than open and honest in their dealing with a grieving family.
Why was the investigator not allowed to speak to anyone on campus?