Was Jason Arday just the perfect victim?

[KellyK2026]

Surely I can’t be the only one that feels like Jason Arday was a victim, right? Yesterday he was found dead and I feel bad for him. Here’s the reasons why I think he was a victim:

1. It is absolutely insane to me that Cambridge University would appoint him as a Professor when he was in the early stages of his career. It’s practically unheard of. At any university you typically have to earn your dues (which means working as an academic for many years) OR do something truly special, like a Nobel Prize nomination, to be promoted to Professor. I cannot imagine the amount of pressure he had been under to prove himself and likely had a tremendous amount of imposter syndrome. Cambridge let him down.
2. I’ve worked in academia for many years, and let me tell you, academics are under a tremendous amount of pressure to publish. This pressure can compromise quality. Arday isn’t the first nor will he be the last to publish questionable papers.
3. As I’ve worked in academia for years, I’ve experienced academics make racist and sexist remarks first hand. One white academic I worked with got drunk at a work get together and started a rant about how Black people shouldn't be president (this was when Obama was in power), that Obama was a Muslim and interracial relationships were ‘disgusting’. What made this somewhat even worse was that this particular academic wrote about racism in the public sphere, so he profited from writing about Black struggles while harbouring these personal views. There was no repercussions for him, despite presenting himself as something other than what he was.
4. I’ve also been sexually assaulted at a conference by a male academic. No repercussions for him either and he no doubt pretends to be a feminist in his work.
5. I don’t think it’s in doubt that Arday had autism. Now I don’t know how it affected him personally, but, again, that must’ve been extremely difficult and perhaps even blurred what is and isn’t acceptable in higher education.
6. He was also cleared of plagiarism but, again, so many academics have plagiarised ideas and papers, but they haven’t been strung up like Arday has been.

So, long story short, I feel like Cambridge let him down. And I feel like he was targeted because there’s plenty of other examples but they never get called out and nobody cares. It was a witch hunt. But I’d be interested to hear what others have to say on this matter.

I agree. Also, his poor children and wife must be devastated. He is a human being and has not committed a serious crime, he was not treated humanely at all. It really makes me think of how the media treated Caroline Flack.

It’s a terrible end to the situation, but I think if it had just been the plagiarism, there wouldn’t have been much awareness / interest outside a small academic circle. It was the claims outside academia and the potentially fabricated back story that made this high profile. At the end of the day, it’s right and proper that you need receipts to prove public assertions, especially in an age where it’s really hard to know what’s true and what’s not. It’s very sad for the people he left behind.

I have no opinion on the academic and plagiarism aspect because it’s out of my league but I find it hard to understand why the people close to him didn’t intervene when he said he had published a book, ran 600 miles in 6 days, the whole thing with the pig’s head and naming the butcher it supposedly came from, and many other things. This was a dream for journalists and everything was so easy to disprove. Either way there’s children without a father now and it’s them I feel sorry for.

He should have never been appointed in the first place. This case is more than plagiarism, which, if you have read the actual thesis excerpts and papers is very obvious with text copied verbatim.
His lying about running 600 miles in six days, being non verbal until 11, then not able to write until 18 but then also having GCSEs, etc didn't help his case.. Everything he said started looking non credible..

Obviously should he not have been black and should he not have been made such a superstar by the media, none of this would have made headline news but resulted a quiet resignation. Cambridge is doomed if they celebrate minotities, doomed if they do not.

I don't know if you know Cambridge well, but plagiarism is actually a big scandal, and would've led to consequences in any case, and no, not every academic plaigirises nor this is common. Yes there's lots of pressure about publications, and especially for him it would've been tremendous, with all eyes on him. There have been suicides of other academics due to pressure, which didn't make headlines. As I said, the committee shouldn't have appointed him. That Nathan Cofas has a lot to answer too and I'm surprised noone is mentioning his own crusade against this poor soul. Look him up, his research is in IQ and "race".

I agree but I also think academia does attract eccentric individuals. Christ, I knew one who would walk around shouting socialist slogans and wearing the same set of clothes everyday only to find out his rich parents had outright bought him an impressive condo by the river which cost a fair bob. I feel like a lot of people’s public personas don’t match reality. I don’t know his reasons why he exaggerated things, but surely lying about running marathons with a broken leg isn’t newsworthy? And, again, I don’t know if he just cracked under the pressure he was under and felt he had to lie. I don’t know if exaggeration was a symptom of a mental health problem, but it surprised me that it made the news considering you can walk into most institutes and find someone like him.

Jason Arday wasn’t a victim; he was a conman.

I’m sorry he felt he had no option but to take his own life. But the people around him can’t have noticed he needed help.

But he lied to get a job and therefore should have been sacked, like anyone else would have.

Some of these posts are just vile… is this how we as humans behave now. The man has taken his own life, isn’t that enough?

Absolutely he was a victim. I’ve met fantasists before, they have mental health issues, they’re not evil. Cambridge made a huge mistake appointing him. The right wing press hounded him to death.

It is utterly tragic that his life has ended like this. I think if you build a life based on fraud, lies, and fantasy then you need to be prepared for the day you are found out. But the level of vitriol directed at him was almost beyond belief. I watched an interview with him on Youtube (from a few years ago) in which he claims to have had a brain tumour removed two weeks before his PhD viva, he appears almost childlike as he talks what is obviously nonsense. In the interview he is not articulate and his vocabulary is not what you might expect of an academic. It is truly incredible that he was appointed to the position he got at Cambridge, and the Cambridge university authorities must shoulder some of the blame for this horrific ending.

Yeah sure they did. He was perfectly innocent wasnt he

If you're going go through life in a high profile position and advertise your shiny credentials and amazing backstory (that are critical to your reaching said high profile position) to anyone who will listen, you better make sure it's true.

I don't believe word of what he said, it unravelled fast and voluminously.
Blaming "the public" for his undoing is weird when he is literally the one who started his life by lying and he got caught. Nobody forced him to make up his lifestory.

That does not mean I don't have compassion towards his widow and children of course - both things can be true.

Oh I agree Cambridge has a lot to answer for. I have seen the excerpts from his PhD and I agree parts of it do look copied verbatim and other parts copied with minimal changes. But he was cleared, so it doesn’t really matter what I think. I do wonder how many other PhDs would be caught out if they were put through software like his was, but why was his chosen?

As far as I’m aware, him not speaking until 11 and not being able to write and read until he was 18 hasn’t been discredited yet and there’s been people who have corroborated this story, including a university lecturer who spent hours with him teaching him.

I think the truth is somewhere in the middle and we will never know the full truth. But he was front and centre of every news outlet and I don’t think that was deserved. If he had mental health problems that should’ve been dealt with sensitively. And Cambridge should’ve done their due diligence before appointing him.

Exactly. To me I see someone crying out for help and drowning. He clearly couldn’t deal with criticism (as shown when he got the police involved due to deteriorating mental health after another academic messaged him about his work) and Cambridge did nothing. I don’t believe he lied about his entire life, but he certainly exaggerated parts of it. To me, that makes me question why he felt he had to lie.

But politicians lie all the time, from how much money they are getting from donors to tax avoidance. They are in high power positions, but I’ve never seen anything like what was directed at Jason Arday. He resigned and it was still relentless.

Aren’t all things checked for plagiarism. I know DS’s graduate dissertations were.

JA put himself in the position to be appointed didn’t he, he made up all the stories etc. Sad as his death is surejy he had to take some responsibility for the lies he made up etc.

A fantasist at best, a conman most likely. However, the press pile-on was unseemly. With due diligence he would never have been appointed.

Nope, not at PhD level they aren’t. Firstly, the thesis itself is too big to put through software and, secondly, the people who are in charge of the carrying out the vivas are generally the experts in the field, so you’d expect them to pick up on any plagiarism.

I agree he had responsibility, but I think Cambridge had a much greater responsibility.

The people who keep bashing him even now he is dead are ghoulish imho.

this.

A victim of his own lies, perhaps.

If he hadn't lied none of us would have heard of him (I only read about him today) and he'd probably still be alive.

You are aware that another Cambridge Professor was caught plagiarising work from a student of his and was not only allowed to keep his job, but there was no media attention. It happens all the time. So why are we just hearing his name?

I agree, all these threads making out he's some sort of martyr are ridiculous.