Alexander Rogers wasn’t just ‘cancelled’ – he was bullied to death

The kind of “shadow justice” that has flourished, unchallenged, at our “shadow universities” has cost a bright, talented young man his life

In the note left by Alexander Rogers, the 20-year-old expressed deep “remorse for his actions” and “a belief that they were unintentional but unforgivable”.
After writing it, the third-year materials science student at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, walked from his Merton Street digs to Donnington Bridge where he was seen “entering the Thames”. When firefighters removed his body from the river that afternoon, the cause of death was declared a “massive head trauma”.
Every detail of the inquest into this young man’s death – on January 15 – is painful to read, but the word I keep coming back to is “unforgivable”. How is it possible that this talented sportsman, tipped to get a First Class degree, felt there was no way forward? No way to make amends for whatever he had done, no possibility of redemption? How can any 20-year-old be convinced the world is that merciless – that cruel?
Every week we read about killers and rapists being released from jail. They’re allowed to pay for their crimes; they’re allowed, if not absolution, then at least the possibility of rehabilitation. What could “Zander”, the former junior common room treasurer, possibly have done that denied him any of that?
We don’t actually know, because he was also denied a formal hearing. No formal complaint was ever made so even now, almost a year on, the details are murky. There was a sexual encounter with another student (referred to only as “B”) six days before his death. The young woman subsequently expressed “discomfort” at what had taken place to several male friends. Alexander “appeared distraught” after finding this out. And although “B” didn’t intend to report the incident to the college authorities, her disclosures led to an increasing hostility towards Alexander and a social ostracisation from which he became convinced there was no way back.
At the weekend, in one of the first instances of its kind, the coroner took the laudable step of calling out the culture that had made this young man feel he didn’t deserve to live. He has since sent a prevention of future death report to the Department for Education, asking ministers “to reflect on the concerns that have arisen” and “take those concerns forward”.
Nicholas Graham wrote that “this culture, described as a form of ‘cancel culture’, involved the exclusion of students from social circles based on allegations of misconduct, often without due process or a fair hearing”.
Highlighting the findings of a serious incident review conducted by the mental health specialist Dominique Thompson, Graham warned against a university culture where people “rush to judgment without knowledge of all the facts” and then “shun those accused”. A culture Dr Thompson found “had become established and normalised” both at Oxford and within the education sector more widely.
I would take this a step further. Because there’s a plainer word that could and should be used to describe what happened to Alexander; the collective “shunning”, the “pile-on” Dr Thompson wrote about “where a group would form a negative view about another individual” and decide to freeze them out. It’s called bullying.
How, at a zero-tolerance time when children are given anti-bullying lessons from the moment they can talk and employees can brand their bosses bullies if they so much as ask for a document to be photocopied, has this particular form of bullying been allowed to thrive? Because it’s the “right” kind of bullying. Condoned by the establishment, no less. Because these bullies are “on the side of the angels”.
We see it not just with accusations of sexual impropriety but other hot button issues at universities. The smallest flicker and out come the industrial grade fire extinguishers. What has actually happened – whether you’re innocent or guilty – is almost irrelevant. Instantly, it becomes about the principle of the thing, about a bigger cause, a higher agenda – one they’ve read and argued about online. And principles, causes, they justify everything, don’t they?
Corpus Christi College has already accepted that “such a culture exists”, says the coroner. Indeed, it was aware of at least “two instances where complaints had been received through formal channels in circumstances with some similarities to Alexander’s case”. Now it, along with every other college and university, needs to crack down on a cancel culture that promotes bullying and the kind of “shadow justice” that has been allowed to flourish, unchallenged, at our “shadow universities”.
Psychologists are always at pains to stress that suicide is never just about one thing. Which is, of course, true. It’s also true, as Alexander’s family said in a heartbreaking statement, that for him – and, no doubt, others – “the rational became the irrational, and he ended what could have been a beautiful life”.
Anyone making light of cancel culture should consider how easy the rationale could be to follow. Because if you’re being told you deserve to be cancelled, wiped out, nullified, it’s not such a big leap to think the world might be better off without you.