Student arrested at Keynes College on suspicion of assault

A University of Kent student was arrested on 16 October in Keynes College, on suspicion of assault.

Police were called at 8.40 pm of a reported disturbance at the Canterbury campus involving a 20-year-old woman and members of campus security.

The female student was arrested on suspicion of assault and has since been released, pending further inquiries.

Contrary to rumours shared on social media that there had been a “stabbing”, a University of Kent spokesperson told InQuire that these allegations were not true. In their words, “scratching” was involved.

Kent Television’s Head of News, Amitesh Das, a resident at Keynes College in Block R -- where the incident occurred -- testified his account of the events that took place that night.

“At around 7:30 pm, I heard a fire alarm that was centralised to the entire flat. My flatmates and I were all in the kitchen and then evacuated the flat. As I went down, the fire alarm meter box that was on the ground floor of the building started ringing. Once the entire building was evacuated, campus security immediately came to the location and entered the building. After about 15 minutes, we were told to go back into the building and flats.”

He added: “ Around 7:50 pm, another fire alarm was heard. Similar to last time, the entire building was evacuated and my flatmates and I left the building to go outside. Just as last time, the fire alarm meter box displayed a similar message. Campus security came again and began to scout the building as they did previously.

“After about 15 minutes, a security personnel gathered all the residents outside the building of Block R and told us that the first fire alarm might have been a mistake, but that this one did not seem like it. He also told us that an electrician would be called to the flat, to see if the fire alarm was faulty or not. After this announcement, we were told to go back to our flats.”

At around 8:15pm, Das heard a loud thump on the floor and immediately came out of his room.

Photo by Cassandra Barnard

“My flatmates were aware of it as well and three other flatmates of mine gathered in the corridor. Since there is a little window in the door between the flats. I had limited but enough vision of the main door.”

Suddenly, Das could hear screams of a woman, which eventually died out.

“Campus security personnel were seen entering the flat and exiting. Eventually, a member of campus security could be seen carrying a yellow bag. Since I had a meeting at 9 pm, I left my flat at 8:55 pm.”

Once he reached downstairs, around 9 pm, Das could see two Kent Estate white vans and a group of around six members of Campus security.

“I walked up to one of them and asked them if the fire alarm was faulty or not. The security personnel said that it wasn’t. I also asked the electrician who was present there, who confirmed the same.”

His flatmates, who were all in the premises the flat in between the times of 9:00pm and 10:15pm, reported that they also saw yellow bags present and heard more noises of the girl shouting.

Later, they could see campus security members escorting a person out of the flat.

No serious injuries were reported.

Keynes College Student Committee were not able to pass comment, as they stated they were not informed of any incident.

The University of Kent has been approached for comment.

More to follow.