Queen’s researcher jailed over threats to kill colleague

Former QUB academic Dr. Patrick Martens is jailed after months of harassment against a university colleague.

| UPDATED jail news patrick martens qub

 

Patrick Martens spent a year as a doctorate student at QUB

 

Patrick Martens, a doctoral research fellow in Psychology at QUB, was handed a five-month prison sentence in Craigavon Crown Court last week.

The incident has led academics at Queen’s to call for the details of those exhibiting threatening behaviour to be passed on when they move institutions, after it emerged that Martens had already been expelled from University of Surrey for harassment of both staff and students.

The court heard how Martens, who was expelled from Queen’s in September 2011:

  • Bombarded his victims with 500 threatening phone calls and emails
  • Threatened to kill a female student, for which he was fined £500 by the Uni
  • Used pseudonyms to hide his identity to send explicit emails to his victims, one entitled “I’m going to slaughter you”
  • Intimidated his victim, threatening to “slaughter” him and his family.

Although Martens was expelled from Surrey in 2008, his history had not been made known to Queen’s where he continued studying for his doctorate. University of Surrey only provided QUB with an academic, not disciplinary reference.

In a statement released by Queen’s, the university states its senior management had “no prior knowledge” of Marten’s history of threatening behaviour and adds that as soon as they learned of the allegations, he was immediately suspended from the University pending police investigations. They also secured injunctions to prevent Martens entering QUB campus or going within 5 miles of the victim’s home.