The disgraced president of Magdalene College MCR, Antonio Rolo Duarte, resigned on Tuesday (29/11), Varsity can reveal.

His decision comes after the MCR held an open meeting where Duarte was given an opportunity to defend himself prior to a vote of no confidence being held on his presidency.

Duarte has been suspended since last Thursday (24/11).

The open meeting was part of a no confidence process triggered earlier this month by the rest of the MCR committee.

The MCR committee said they had received “several complaints regarding his behaviour” and accused him of a “lack of commitment” to his role.

He was also independently accused of punching MCR vice-president James Ball by two sources.

At the time of original publication, Ball himself declined to confirm the allegation as a College investigation was ongoing, but has since confirmed to Varsity that an assault did take place. Ball was seen with a black eye in the days after the incident. Duarte “strongly denies” that he assaulted Ball.

Comments made in a video from MCR hustings in 2018, where Duarte was running for vice-president as a master’s student, also caused controversy.

In the video seen by Varsity, Duarte proposed to solve “the biggest problem in College”, which he said is: “where is the pussy?” He prefaced that comment by saying “it’s not me saying it … they say ‘Captain [Duarte is dressed as a pirate in the video], where is it?’”

Duarte claimed that he had “a few ideas about how to solve that problem”.

He went on to describe his solution saying: “The one thing I’m about … is diversity and inclusion. So I won’t just get female concubines [a word for a low status mistress], I’ll get male concubines as well”.

With Duarte having now resigned, MCR vice-president James Ball will be standing in as acting president.

Elections to fill the vacancy are expected at the beginning of Lent Term.

In a statement to Varsity, Duarte said: “The pirate monologue was stand-up comedy and the peacock campaign was some delightful student fun. I am the president of a student club, not president of the United States.

“The feeding of histrionic, misleading stories to a student newspaper run by undergraduates is bizarre. The allegations of misconduct published by Varsity are all completely false.”

“I wish everybody a good day. I must focus on my studies now.”