Warwick student 'terrified' after it emerged male students who threatened to 'rape 100 girls' will return to university'

A female Warwick student has said she is ‘terrified’ at the thought of going back to university with male students who threatened to ‘rape 100 girls’.

The university has come under fire after it decided to let two male students to return next September after initially banning the pair for 10 years as they were part of a group of boys who sent messages about raping fellow female students to each other.

Racial and anti-Semitic language was also used.

The university said the the ban had been reduced to a year after the students appealed their original sanction.

But the decision to reduce their punishment has been widely criticised, not least by women students at the university.

Now, several have spoken to the Victoria Derbyshire programme on BBC 2 to express their fears about the return of the male students.

‘Frankly, the thought of it terrifies me,’ one woman said.

‘None of us have any idea of what they were capable of and we still don’t know what they are capable of.

‘And the fact that the university expects us to go back and attempt to complete our degrees and get an education alongside people like this, I truly just feel that they don’t care about the safety of students at all.’

She added: ‘I feel so let down and betrayed, it’s appalling.’

Another student, a third-year pupil called Milly Stack said the university had to reverse the decision.

‘Bring a bit of humanity to it and think of the victims,’ she said.

And another student, who complained to Warwick University, said the discplinary process was upsetting and it felt like the female students were ‘on trial’.

She added: ‘There was talk of gang rape, genital mutilation – he said we should be flattered.’

She also revealed that the boys involved spoke about wanting to gang rape her and then ‘ejaculate all over’ her discarded body.

And it was claimed that the University press officer was on the board that decided the punishment.

The anonymous student claimed they also spoke about ‘genitally mutilating’ one of her friends.

The messages about rape were posted on Facebook. One of the messages said: ‘Sometimes it’s fun to just go wild and rape 100 girls.’

Another said: ‘Rape the whole flat to teach them all [a] lesson.’ and a further message called for a woman to raped ‘in the street while everybody watches’.

As a result, five students were suspended.

Two of those were the students initially banned for 10 years, two were excluded for one year, and one was given a lifetime campus ban.

This means four out of the five of the men initially suspended will rejoin classes in September 2019.

A spokesman from Warwick University told the BBC its focus had been ‘to ensure that anyone involved in this matter who remains a student at Warwick is able to complete their studies’.

Students from the university have taken to Twitter to voice their anger using the hashtag #ShameOnYouWarwick.