Phillip Brook has resigned as co-editor of The Cambridge Student following a series of incidents in which it is alleged that he leaked a false news story to The Tab, making unfounded allegations of sexual malpractice against a fellow of St John’s College.

Varsity published information yesterday regarding the alleged circumstances surrounding Brook’s sudden resignation, and a later article in The Tab provided details of a full investigation into the matter. It appears that Brooks, a second year historian from Girton, sent an email from an anonymous Yahoo webmail account in an effort to initiate a false news story. The email purported to be from a student who had been told that they would get a first in return for giving sexual favours to a supervisor at John’s.

The Tab also received a hoax letter falsely attributed to St John’s Senior Tutor, Dr Matthias Dörrzapf, which suggested that the college was investigating the allegations which had been made against one of their fellows.

When asked about the letter of 8 January by The Tab, Dr Dörrzapf confirmed that he had not been in college that week and in addition had not written or signed any letters at that time. Upon examining the letter, he concluded that it was a fake and subsequently contacted the Dean and Master of St John’s, as well as the college solicitors, Mills & Reeve LLP.

The incident was linked to Brook by The Tab, who managed to trace the email to an IP address in Girton accommodation, and after the information was made known to Girton’s Senior Tutor, IT technicians were able to identify Brook as the sender.

In a statement issued, Brook confirmed that he acted alone, and that the emails are not connected to anyone else associated with TCS.

It is likely that Brooks will be expected to pay St John’s solicitors’ fees, as well as face disciplinary proceedings from his own college. It seems that he will also have no further association with TCS; he resigned his position at TCS on Wednesday, although the Board has yet to reach a decision regarding whether or not they intend to accept or reject his resignation.