A 26-year old advertising-agent-turned-real-estate-agent-turned-University-student who claims of having been "groomed" and subject to "brutal sex" which never happened, resulting in farcical investigations by two Universities, a bullshit article by a website which self-identifies as news outlet, a struggle session of New Zealand academia worthy of the Chinese cultural revolution, and a witch hunt befitting 17th Century New England, is now struggling together with her former lecturer to make sense of what happened. We ask if claims of being a grumpy mother who left traditional journalism has become an excuse for morally questionable self-proclaimed investigative reporters to exploit women who self-identify as victim-survivor to garner views and publicity for themselves by deceiving their readers with poorly-researched hastily-scraped-together rage-baiting culture-war-stoking garbage pieces

    Linh, 26, had come to New Zealand in her early twenties. She had worked in her country of origin at an international advertising agency, and then in New Zealand as a real estate agent, being "trained to think out of the box and ahead of the curve" and having "knowledge of social media, digital innovation and internet marketing". She had enrolled at a New Zealand University when she was 25 to earn a second undergraduate degree beside the one she already had from her home country.

    Stefan, 34, was an autistic paranoid antisocial nerd, like most of his colleagues. What set him apart from his colleagues, was a corny and lame sense of humour, which he manifested in alarming and borderline-criminal ways, such as including jokes in his slides and lectures, and displaying a toy panda in different poses in the background of his Zoom lectures during lockdown.

    On the topic, Linh declared: "I think he has a different teaching style, because he is closer to our age, and he's kind of humorous [..] and I told him that and also he is humorous so like at the end of his... usually in his lectures he put, at the end of the day, he would put some [...] jokes in the end or he just kind of make you feel like he's your peer I guess and also the first year when he was teaching in Zoom, he would have Panda's stuffed animal on his bed behind his background, it just makes him look very relatable." 

    Obviously, this was not a way to keep students engaged during the online lectures, but rather a subtle way to groom and manipulate Linh, despite the fact that he did not even know who she was, and he had never seen her nor any of the other 150 students, as the academic year had started during lockdown.

    Another subtle way in which Stefan groomed Linh was by ignoring her. As she puts it in July 2021: "I took his class in the first trimester and second trimester of 2020. He was been quite professional, sometimes he doesn't respond to my emails." Only the naive reader will think that this was because Stefan was minding his business. Indeed, Stefan's "quite professional" behaviour from Linh's July 2021 testimony becomes by August 2021 subtle flirting: "so in the Second Trimester, sometimes when I see him, not in the lecture room but outside when in campus when I run into him, he would wink at me but I didn't see that think too much about that because I thought it could be a cultural thing or I don't know because he didn't do anything that is more alarming I guess". By July 2022 many details have been added in the Newsroom version: "When lockdown ended and they finally resumed in-person classes, she would sometimes see her lecturer around campus. Stefan [...] would give her a wink as they passed each other, but not say hi. Uncertain she wondered was it just his way of greeting? Was it a cultural difference? Or something else? Inexperienced in the world of flirtation and romance, Linh, in her twenties, was a virgin and naïve. She came from a big city, but a conservative and authoritarian country. She shrugged. "In my country we don't talk about sex much at all. It's a completely different attitude.""

    During one of these chance encounters on campus Linh snuck up behing Stefan and poked him in the back, as he recounted at the time with a colleague of his. Uncertain, he wondered "was it just her way of greeting? Was it cultural difference? Or something else?" Inexperienced in the world of flirtation and romance, Stefan, a nerd, was autistic and dumb. He came from a tiny village, in a fascist and corrupt country. He shrugged. "In my country we don't have sex at all, we are too busy counterfeiting small denomination Euro bills."

    With the limpidity and precision that characterize the whole piece, the author Bonnie Sumner writes that in the second semester "Stefan, a senior lecturer in his mid-30s, took took another of Linh's classes." A nitpicker would observe that was Linh who decided to enroll as a first-year student in the second-year class that had already been assigned to Stefan to teach. 

    Concerning this period, in her July 2021 testimony Linh complains that, while Stefan's "was been quite professional", nonetheless "sometimes he doesn't respond to my emails." Newsroom does not feel the need to expand on this serious allegation. Here, Linh is referring to messages sent in the 2nd half Trimester two, when Stefan was no longer lecturing, some of which sent from Linh's personal email, such as:

"Hello attention please [...] II miss your classes! It's my birthday today [...]" 

"SOS-encouragement please [...] I'm completely terrified by this book. Why are all the maths books so scary. Please can you tell me that it will get better. I am trying."

"Previously I said I want to learn geometry is because I want to be an artist, not sure in what form (I don't have any practical skill anyway), but visual came to mind first hence geometry. [...] A nostalgic factor is also playing in postponing algebra - my favorite in math when I was maybe 13-15 years old was euclidean geometry, at that time I did not know what `like' means, I only know I preferred solving those first before other homework. As a different person now, I am very curious about how I feel about them now"

"Congrats for getting the fellowship! Your topic looks very interesting. May I present you --- renting a panda from China is $1m a year, but the fund is probably not enough for you to build around them and feed them, which leaves you to a very realistic choice: naming a baby panda/ adoption for life (you can visit it) for about $200,000. So you can name 20 pandas!!! `Marmar' `titi' `nono' `lulu' `pipi' `nini' just some ideas to get you started."

"If you are going to your office routinely, can you let me know what time and what door and I can follow you into the building?"

"May I recommend you to recommend this book to whoever may seek recommendation from you [...] Anyway, I just want to recommend it!"

"can we meet up for half an hour every week at a fixed time? (time choice is kindly up to you) If it's too much, I take a step back and settle for half an hour every two weeks and I assure no philosophy question."

"Another question - how are you going to teach [400 level course]? [...] I am highly tempted to take this course even with the understanding that I'll probably fail (especially when you give the tests), but genuinely I'm more motivated to learn this than other courses."

"Actually, are you available this week to talk about these questions? Whenever suits you."

    In December 2020 Stefan caved in to Linh's request to meet to answer such questions. She had previously asked to be given a summer research project. Stefan had replied that this is usually offered to students from their second year on. Linh had pointed out that she was not the typical first year student, as she was 25 years old, and showed him her ID.

    In this occasion, Linh told Stefan that she did not have any questions concerning her study, and just wanted to have a friendly chat. She then proceeded to tell Stefan that she was studying his native language, she wanted to pursue studies in his country of origin, she showed him news articles from that country, and on her way out she greeted him by calling him with a slang word in Stefan's native language which means "hot guy".

    Uncertain he wondered "was it just his way her greeting? Was it cultural difference? Or something else?" Inexperienced in the world of flirtation and romance, Stefan, a dork, was autistic and dumb. He came from a huge metropolis, but a dysfunctional and communist country. He shrugged. "In my country we don't call professors "hot guy" that much. Unless they are hot guys, that is. Which is obviously not my case. It's a completely different attitude.""

    Obviously, had Stefan greeted Linh as "hot chick" it would have been a serious case of sexual harassment in the workplace which would have seen him permanently banned from any civilized country and deported to Easter Island, while Linh can free to use sexualized monikers, since no one gives a shit about how Stefan is called.

    With the limpidity and precision that characterize the whole piece, the author Bonnie Sumner writes "Over the summer semester she ambitiously applied to join one of Stefan's 400 level papers. Unusually for a second-year student, she was accepted. Linh was buoyant with pride at this validation. "All the other students knew that I got his special permission to take the class.""

    A nitpicker would observe that it was Linh's personal initiative to ask to enroll in the class, via the message: "Subject: [400 level paper] Hi Stefan I'd like to enroll in this course. Can you approve please" to which Stefan simply replied: "Yes: that is OK for me", in consideration of the numerous times in which Linh had expressed her desire to take it, and she was not "selected" among a "pool of applicants" which did not exist.

    During the next trimester, Stefan and Linh would walk back together from the lecture room to the main building. In this occasion, they would talk with each other, and then they started to take walks in the city, and then in the Botanic Garden after class. Linh testified that she had a "crush" on Stefan, that "during the walks, I thought he was single, it made the infatuation stronger, I lost my mind" and "... during those um walks, he was rather respectful" and "he made it seem like he can take professional as professional and this is separate" and she "described enjoying his company, going for walks with him and agreeing to meet with him despite knowing that he was married" .

    Stefan thought that Linh was really smart, funny, well-read, interesting and quirky, and just enjoyed spending time with her. During these walks, Stefan opened up about his struggles with anxiety and depression, and his avoidant, perfectionistic, and OCD coping mechanisms. Indeed, as he recounted to his GP, he had been subjects in his childood of episodes that nowadays would be called "bullying" and at the time were called "just being kids", which led him to develop an eating disorder which left him with physical and mental issues. Linh mirrored his feelings and experiences and seemed to understand him so well.

    For the first time in his life, Stefan felt he had met someone like him, like a long-lost sister. Could it be that I found a person that understands me, even like me, despite being such a mess? At the ripe age of 34 he had lost hope this could happen. Or this is what a naïve reader might think, a reader under the impression that Stefan is a human being, with human emotions, who enjoys the company of other fellow humans. The ugly reality is that Stefan is an empty shell enveloping a violent beast whose only desire is to drink the blood of not-so-young virgins.

    Linh by her initiative started to email Stefan from her personal email account, by sending him a poem ("about their common subject" according to Newsroom):

    Proof by contradiction, 19 Mar 2021:

    sail out into the Pacific

    North and South

    where are the clues

    searching for my next proof

    fire is what I look for, fire is what I look out for

    the irrational √2, the irresistible √2

    walking all the wrong tracks

    I am just a man

    living the truth out of contradictions

    now, what was I trying to prove again?

    On April 1st, at the beginning of a two-week semester break, as it is typical of a victim of grooming, Linh told Stefan the joke of the mathematician who got a mistress, and quipped "it was a sign" when he recounted the circumstances of his losing his wedding ring, and gave him a birthday present. She then confessed that she wanted to have a "romantic and nonplatonic relationship", told Stefan about her previous relationship, how she met her ex-boyfriend on her workplace in her home country, when he was in his 50s and she was in her early 20s. She mentioned being with him as her reason to coming to New Zealand, his home country. Linh told Stefan that he wanted to have a sexual relationship with him, but did not know how to get there. She testified: "so before that kiss I did tell him that I like him", "if before we were kind of pretending that we were just friends and there is no line being crossed, but obviously there's all these things happening, so I just wanted to point out that this is not platonic", "I told him that I had a boyfriend that I lived with for 3-4 years but that we never had sex and he knew I'd never had sex. I haven't had many dating experiences and said I didn't know how it works. He said it starts with a kiss and then he said, "do you want to kiss?" and I then kissed him", "she kissed him and she was very worried because the location is close to Weir House and Campus and she could hear others nearby, she didn't want any of her peers and lecturers see this and misjudge her capability."

    Stefan told her he liked her too and agreed to be in a relationship, clearly not because he liked Linh and wanted to make her happy, but because his only goal in life is to deceive not-so-young virgins and to drink their not-so-young blood.

    As only a grooming victim would do, Linh walked back with Stefan on his way home and before departing from Stefan, Linh quickly stamped in Stefan's mouth a goodbye kiss, before he could consent or even realize what was happening. Naturally, if the roles had been reverse, this would have been unanimously considered by the Police Officer, the Lady Barrister, the Inspector Gadget, the Waitangi Tribunal, the House Committee on Nonconsensual Activities, the Spanish Inquisition, and Bonnie Sumner a brutal sexual assault. However, being Stefan just an autistic paranoid antisocial nerd, not to mention a dumb simp, he does not need to be asked for or to give enthusiastic consent, but rather should just thank his lucky starts if he gets any action, this sick fuck.

    The next step in Stefan's vicious grooming consisted in waiting until Linh contacted him by email on August 4 during the semester break suggesting that they meet again. As it typical of a 26-year-old-real-estate-agent-turned-student who is being groomed, Linh showed up at their appointment in an Uber, told Stefan to hop in and brought him, without telling him where they were going, to the Karori Cemetery. She testifies "after that time it was the trimester break and then she emailed him to meet up and talk about things and this time she took him to Karori Cemetery because she was worried about running into people."

    On that day, April 6, Linh and Stefan jointly decided to have physical relations, which they had again on April 13. Being Stefan a simpy autistic paranoid antisocial dumb nerd, this resulted in experiences that could be describing at best as embarrassing for both of them. To cope with the embarrassment, Stefan recounted some experiences from the past, dating to several year prior, when he had been a slightly less simpy autistic paranoid antisocial dumb nerd. As a result, Linh concluded that Stefan is not only a crazy simpy autistic paranoid antisocial dumb nerd, but also (paradoxically) a fuckboy.

According to Newsroom: Every so often she would grieve this mythical man, a man she thought Stefan had been, the one who listened to her fears and mirrored her feelings and experiences on those first walks, who was kind and caring and seemed to understand her so well. But he never existed. 

    So on April 16, before the end of the break, Linh wrote to Stefan the message on the subject "true friends stab you in the front". In the style typical of the victim-survivor of grooming, sexual assault, and rape, Linh writes "Are you ready to be notorious? (Though I ask myself --- why the fuck do I care? really) You told me too many things about yourself [Stefan]. I don't even know if I should appreciate your openness or men are really this stupid when it comes to sex. I guess I'll learn." She later testified: "He had seemed such a credible person with the prizes and CV he has [...] So his real agenda was a shock to her."

    On June 5 Linh emailed Stefan a sketch depicting a gun being fired and a pig with sunglasses. Uncertain, he wondered: "was it just her way of greeting? Was it a cultural difference? Or something else?" Inexperienced in the world of threats and intimidation, Stefan, an imbecile, was autistic and naïve. He came from a shithole in the Land of Mafia, Pizza, and Mandolino. He shrugged. "In my country we just deliver a horse head to your doorstep. It's a completely different attitude."" 

    In July, Linh contacts the Student Interest and Conflict Resolution team, and submits a formal complaint about Stefan. She also contacted the New Zealand Police to file a criminal complaint.

The Police investigation

    Linh filed a complaint with the New Zealand Police on July 27, 2021. About this complaint, the officers note "from reading the attached report, it is difficult to understand the violation that Linh is speaking to", and "it will need to be clarified with Linh to her comprehension of the incidents as I note that Linh has said to Stefan on one occasion "I cant get pregnant" but there is no mention of not wanting the sexual encounter to occur, on the second occasion it states in the report Linh gave Stefan voluntary oral sex as he struggled to get and erection." Her video-recorded interview with Police was booked on August 17. On August 15 Linh cancelled the interview and informed the Police via email and over the phone that "she does not want the investigation to proceed and she won't be making a statement as scheduled". On September 9, Linh was contected by Police via email "about wether she has reflected on withdrawing her complaint and what her position was". On October 6 Linh contacted Police "to discuss making a statement. She advised [the officer] that she was frustrated with the University investigation process and as such had reconsidered her view about making a statement to Police." She was informed about "the investigation process and that Police had to evaluate all the evidence before deciding whether charges should be filed, and that a complaint in itself was not sufficient grounds to file charges." The interview was thus scheduled again for October 13.

    In this interview, Linh stated that Stefan always acted "in a non-violent manner" and "has never shown any form of aggression" towards her", that "she was laughing at him not being able to put his penis into her vagina", that she has "voluntarily given him oral sex", and when he asked her about her moaning she "advised him it was a scream of pleasure", and "described voluntarily participating in all aspects of this encounter", "she acknowledges that she was happy to have sex a second time",  she "understood that what happened the second time was consensual and was more focused on what happened in the first encounter. She wanted to explore the power imbalance in that he was her university lecturer, however he was 34 at the time and she 27. She has made no reference in her statement to [Stefan] ever coercing her to have sex with him by abusing his position as her lecturer. On the contrary [Linh] described enjoying his company, going for walks with him and agreeing to meet with him despite knowing that he was married", and "there is nothing to suggest that she wasn't consenting". However, "after the second encounter, she has wondered why she agreed to participate in such activities", as "she did not agree with his behaviour".

    After having learned that Stefan is not only a crazy simpy autistic paranoid antisocial dumb nerd, but also a dangerous clumsy and impotent sexual predator, the Police concluded that "no offences have been disclosed" as "there is no evidence to suggest the male party has sexually assaulted the complainant but rather all interaction was consensual but later regretted due to how he treated her and not left his wife. The complainant has suggested that she was coerced into sexual activity due to the power imbalance given he was her lecturer. However she was an adult at the time, entered into the affair eyes wide open and he has made no demands of what would happen if she didn't engage with him", and "she had not disclosed any activity by Stefan consistent with an abuse of this power which caused her to be coerced into sexual activity. To the contrary she has freely and voluntarily entered into the activity that occurred."

    The always meticulous and measured Bonnie Sumner, on the subject, claims that Stefan "enacted brutal sex acts", "forced himself into Linh's mouth, pulling her hair", "was very rough and there was blood everywhere. Soon his mouth would become covered in her blood", "during the second encounter he was rough again. He pulled her hair and slapped her." Naturally, the fact that none of this ever happened, according to Linh own testimony (#believevictims) as reported in the documents Newsroom claims to be in receipt of, is not something a "grumpy mother who left traditional journalism" should be concerned with. And obviously the bleeding is not a natural phenomenon "due to Linh's hymen breaking from intercourse" and that "[the university health clinic] said that it was ok" as Linh herself reported, but rather a manifestation of Stefan's brutality.

After the investigation

    In mid December, after both the Police and University investigation had closed, Stefan accepted a job offer in Europe. Obviously, this was just to find new hunting grounds for his predatory tendencies. Only a credulous person would think that he wanted to be closer to his friends and family---whom he had not seen in 4 years---as he was traumatized by the investigations, which did not seem to always adhere to "the principles of natural justice and procedural fairness". He felt no one would listen or really care about his testimony, or even Linh's testimony whenever it was in Stefan's favour. He started to suffer of major depression, with persistent suicidal ideation, which had to be treated with medication.

    He proposed a starting date in May, 5 monts from then, as he did not want people to say that he left after the conclusion of the investigation. (Spoiler Alert: that is exactly what was going to happen.) He also wanted to have the opportunity to submit a letter to the University, apologizing about not paying more attention to the Conflict of Interest Policy, and confirming that he would not consider entering into a relationship with someone he has met in a professional context. Indeed, he would rather gargle with raw sewage, or put his privates in a vacuum cleaner.

    He was also acknowledging that Linh ended up considering their relationship as a negative experience, fact for which he felt sorry, and wishing her the best.

    His lawyer told Stefan that, as the investigation had already closed, they first needed to wait to receive the Final Report. This happened after two months, in February. Then his lawyer said that they needed to give feedback about the Final Report and about the conduct of the investigator, which they did after a few weeks in person. They heard back from the University in April.

    In this letter, the University, echoing the Final Report, told Stefan:

1. "you showed a serious lack of insight and acknowledgement of the fact that there is an intrinsic trust, power and status differential implicit in the staff-to-student relationship"

2. "you showed a serious lack of insight and acknowledgement of the fact there is an intrinsic trust, power and status differential implicit in the staff-to-student relationship" 

3. "you showed a serious lack of insight [...] into the effects and potential ongoing effects of your actions";

4. "you showed a serious lack of insight [...] into the effects and ongoing effects of your actions"

5. "you showed a serious lack of insight and acknowledgement of the fact there is an intrinsic trust, power, and status differential that is implicit in the staff-to-student relationship";

6. "you show a serious lack of insight and acknowledgement of the intrinsic trust, power and status differential implicit in the staff-to-student relationship";

7. "you have failed to accept or show insight into the intrinsic trust, power, and status differential that is implicit in the staff-to-student relationship";

8. "not only that, but you have shown a serious lack of insight into how that intrinsic power imbalance has affected a student of the University for whom you had responsibility";

9. "you continued to demonstrate the lack of insight that I had advised [...] I considered to be potentially very serious"

10. "you show serious lack of insight and acknowledgement of the fact that there is an intrinsic trust, power and status differential implicit in the staff-to-student relationship".

    Despite being a crazy simpy autistic paranoid antisocial dumb nerd (not to mention a clumsy and impotent dangerous sexual predator), after a careful reading of this letter, Stefan started to have the suspicion that perhaps the University thought that he had a serious lack of insight and acknowledgement of fact that there is an intrinsic trust, power and status differential implicit in the staff-to-student relationship, and into the effects and potential ongoing effects of his actions.

    Stefan, his lawyer, and a support person had thus another meeting with the University, where he finally got to read his letter, which perhaps convinced the University that he did not have a serious lack of insight and acknowledgement of fact that there is an intrinsic trust, power and status differential implicit in the staff-to-student relationship, and into the effects and potential ongoing effects of his actions.

    Stefan had also written a letter of apologies for Linh. However, he refrained from sharing it with her since he had been told by the University, the Police, his employment lawyer, his criminal laywer, his colleagues, his counsellor, his tailor, the milkman, and his imaginary friend not to contact her.

    At this point, it was the end of April 2025,  Stefan had already sold is furniture, given up his apartment, and was living in a hotel. His new employment was starting the week after, and all the induction meetings had already been scheduled.

  Stefan had been suspended for 10 months, during which he was not allowed to work from home or even access online scientific journals, all the while his salary was paid by the Royal Society to perform research for them, as a temporary measure for safety reasons "pending the outcome of the investigation" which had ended 4 and a half months earlier. (Employment New Zealand requires that "The length of the suspension should reflect the time needed to conduct the investigation or the time needed to reduce the health and safety risk, so the employer should not let it drag on.")

Investigative journalism at its finest

    Come July 2022 and Newsroom publishes a well-documented and mildly worded article title "`He Seemed Harmless': Groomed Student Left Broken", ironically penned by the author of `They were looking for a monster', together with two follow-up pieces documenting the ponderate outrage that followed.

Defining the author Bonnie Sumner a liar would be wholly in accurate. As the philosopher Harry Frankfurt would point out, ``it is impossible for someone to lie unless she thinks he knows the truth. [...] A person who lies is thereby responding to the truth, and she is to that extent respectful of it.'' Bonnie Sumner's reporting completely disregards the truth, with plausibility and the impression it makes on the reader being its only concerns. To continue quoting Frankfurt, Bonnie Sumner's ``eye is not on the facts at all, as the eyes of the honest person and of the liar are, except insofar as they may be pertinent to their interest in getting away with what they say. She does not care whether the things she says describe reality correctly. She just picks them out, or makes them up, to suit her purpose.''

    Stefan's new University then started a new investigation about Stefan without telling him, in breach of its own policies. He was invited to two meetings with the Head of School and HR to discuss the articles. HR took notes during these meetings, failing to share them with Stefan for feedback, in breach of its own policies. Then Stefan was again suspended, as a temporary measure. Anonymous email messages were sent to the University student association and the editors of the student newspaper saying:

" I just thought that your newspaper, and indeed also the Student Union, would like to know about the presence of a possible sexual predator on staff at [University]. These two articles were recently published in New Zealand [links].  The perpetrator is now teaching at at unnamed university in Europe. Following some online investigations, colleagues seem that it is likely to be this person [link] who no longer works at [New Zealand University], despite there still being traces of him on their website [link]."

 Stefan was also forbidden on short notice to participate to the conferences where he was already lined up to speak. Stefan then proposed to take leave and attend those conferences during his holiday, not as a representative of the University. The University tells him he is not allowed. He asks on which basis the University can forbid him to go to a conference abroad on his spare time. The University never replies.

    At this point, he accepts an offer from another University, and informs his current one. Obviously, this was to find a more welcoming environment for his blood-drinking habits, not because he was tired of dealing with Institutions who seem to care more about what some bored ill-informed charity case writes online rather than the rights and well-being of their employees.

    Stefan was thus summoned for a disciplinary hearing by his current University "in relation to the allegations of inappropriate behaviour with a student, misuse of power in a position of trust when employed at [the New Zealand University]". So Stefan had to get yet another lawyer to tell the University what anyone would be able to tell them without the need of a law degree: that it was entirely outside of their jurisdiction and beyond the scope of their policies to investigate such claims, as they date over a year back, in another continent, under the employment of another University. At this point, the University lets go, and cancels the hearing.

More sleuthing from the Mentor Network

    Stefan then moves to his current University. The matter is then taken in the hands of a "Mentor Network", an association of academics working on a common scientific subject. According to their own Annual Report, they have "received multiple reports" and "the Board, individually and as a group, has poured an enormous amount of time and thought into balancing the ethics of not disclosing information that might prevent future harm versus irresponsibly spreading the same information. Individual Board members have reached out to others, both colleagues and professionals, to seek advice on the ethics and legalities of possible actions [...] the Board called for the formation of an Advisory Committee whose sole purpose would be addressing this issue [..] consisting of a subset of the [...] Mentors, who are willing to help when information of abuse, harassment, or discrimination [...] The responsibilities of the Advisory Committee are to gather evidence of misconduct cases within the [...] community (for example, meet with reporters who come forward to the Board, confirming reports through additional sources where possible, reading online articles) and decide among themselves the best action forward."

    The understandably concerned members of the Board then proceeds to contact the institution that currently funds Stefan, the organizing committees of the conferences where he is lined up to speak, HR at his current Institution, his colleagues at his University, his colleagues at other Universities, his friends and family, his long lost cousin Waldo, and his dog, just to let them know that Stefan is (not only a crazy simpy autistic paranoid antisocial dumb clumsy and impotent nerdy fuckboy) but also a dangerous sexual predator.

    A sample of such messages contains the links to Newsroom's articles and an article from the New Zealand Herald, which is about a different person. Indeed if one reads them realizes that the lawyer in the NZ Herald piece is a male and the one in the Newsroom pieces is a female. But obviously we cannot expect the concerned members of the Mentor Network to, say, read the articles before sending them around as proof of Stefan's penchant for violence and predation, especially if they are behind paywall. As long as they mention "allegations of a relationship with his student, which turned violent" and have a picture with a woman with bruises claiming of having been assaulted by their New Zealand lecturer, they will do the job. That the woman is not Linh and the lecturer is not Stefan is a minor detail that can be ignored.

    In the same message, the a concerned member of the Mentor Network Board writes "This matter was brought to my attention because I am on the board of directors of the [...] Mentor Network, and I suppose some people were worried that he might apply to become a mentor, or that we might know of young women who might be considering a PhD or postdoc with him. A senior, well-respected colleague in [scientific subject] sent a letter to the HR department of [his University], but was essentially told that the only way to proceed was to make a formal complaint (though it wasn't made clear what constitutes a formal complaint). This colleague has also informed the ethics board of [his current institution]. I'm not sure if this information is enough for you to move forward in some way."

    The fact that "spreading sexual rumours" and "spreading malicious rumors" about a person are forms of sexual harassment and, respectively, harassment/bullying, according for example to the UK Equality Act 2010, is naturally not something that the concerned members of the Mentor Network consider relevant. Despite the fact that according to the Mentor Network's own Code of Conduct, its members will 

• Be kind to others. Act with integrity, courtesy, and respect toward fellow Members and mathematicians, members of other professions, and the broader community

• Uphold and promote a culture of respectful behaviour and anti-harassment in all environments

• Knowingly or carelessly act in a manner that negatively impacts the professional integrity or equal opportunity of others

    Unfortunately, "the Board encountered many obstacles that prevented the truth from being known or any possibility of accountability". We must desume that according to the Board of the Mentor Networ, 3 investigations are not a sufficient to hold someone accountable, there ought to be an extra layer of judgment by the appropriate forum to discuss these matters, which is obviously the Supreme Kangaroo Court of Twitter.

Within this flurry of activities, which included the recruiting of a lawyer to consult on how to best defame their colleagues in full legality, it never occurred to the concerned members of the Board of the Mentor Network to, for example, ask Stefan what he made of all of this. If they had done so, he could have reassured them that he does not have nor he ever had any intention of joining their Mentor Network. Or to have any physical contact with other humans, for that matter. He would rather dedicates himself to less dangerous and more enjoyable activities such as fire-breathing and seatless bike-riding.

   A speaker at a conference where Stefan was aslo lined up to speak demanded that Stefan be uninvited. When the organizing committee did not cave in, the speaker uninvited herself "for ethical reasons" (#self-deplatforming). No worries though, the organizing committee has learned their lesson, and will toe the line from now on.

    After moving back to the Land of Crazy People where he naturally belongs, Stefan was denied the drug that keeps him alive by its dysfunctional healthcare system, thus causing him a permanent disability to its lower limbs. Being now not only a crazy simpy autistic paranoid antisocial dumb clumsy impotent nerdy dangerous sexual predator and fuckboy but also a cripple, Stefan has bigger problems to deal with than the bullshit that the concerned members of the Mentor Network spread around.

    Coda

    Aware that the disadvantaged category of crippled crazy simpy autistic paranoid antisocial dumb clumsy impotent nerdy dangerous sexual predators fuckboys and alleged rapists does not get any sympathy (and it consists, as a matter of fact, only of Stefan and a post office clerk from Mumbai called Rajeet), Stefan is nowadays mostly works as a social media manager for his dog.

    Following the publication of this piece Stefan looks forward, as befitting this age of exploitative journalism,  performative outrage,  institutional hypocrisy, gratuitous hatred, and prevailing idiocracy, to more bullshit-spreading intentionally-deceiving culture-war-stoking sloppy and incoherent reporting by the "grumpy mother who left traditional journalism" Bonnie Sumner, more virtue-signalling self-righteous ill-informed formulaic open letters by the collective of 64 Rutherford Discovery Fellows from 10 institutions and other witch-hunting online mobs, and more farcical investigations and vague and ungrammatical reports with unsubstantiated claims which ignore or dismiss the available evidence whenever does not favour the designated victim, thus providing a disservice to both complainants and defendants, their institutions, not to mention the natural justice they are supposed to serve.

    Every so often Stefan grieves this woman Linh had been, the one who listened to his fears and mirrored his feelings and experiences on those first walks, who was kind and caring and seemed to understand him so well. But no one else wanted to listen to that woman, because if you are not a victim-survivor no one gives a shit.