Top university suspends 11 students over racist and rape messages

Students at a leading university have been suspended after screenshots of a group messenger chat emerged where users posted racial slurs and made rape jokes.

The University of Warwick has taken action against 11 male students, suspending them pending a disciplinary investigation after the remarks came to light.

Screenshots showed one chat member wrote: “love Hitler, hate n****s and jews and Corbyn”, while other messages spoke about it being “fun to just go wild and rape 100 girls.”

The messages came to light after three formal complaints were made to the university, with dozens of screenshots of the alleged remarks provided as evidence.

Discussing racism, one user said: “Yeah racism is frowned upon at Warwick? F****** bull.”

Others replied “EDL!” and “racism is class”.

A University of Warwick spokesman said: “A possible student disciplinary incident is currently being actively investigated.

“We cannot comment further on this matter until those investigations, and any subsequent disciplinary processes, are concluded.”

A member of the elite Russell Group, the university is ranked 11th in the UK, according to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2018.