‘We apologise for these errors, and for the distress caused’: The Times finally apologises to Esme Allman

The Times newspaper have today published an apology to an Edinburgh student who was accused of complaining to the university about Robbie Travers for allegedly ‘mocking Isis.’

Esme Allman, a third year, was placed in the centre of a media storm after The Times alluded that she had complained to Edinburgh University in response to Travers’ status where he praised the US military’s action in attacking ISIS.

Allman maintained throughout that she had never met Travers, and wasn’t even aware of his comments about Isis. She told BuzzFeed News at the time: “I reported him for attacking me personally – there is no mention of ISIS in the complaint.”

Despite Allman’s denial of such an allegation, the ex-BME Officer was continuously trolled on Facebook for ‘supporting ISIS’, as well as being called sexist names.

Allman told The Tab: “At 8am, my Facebook inbox was overwhelmed with message requests from internet trolls claiming I was an ISIS sympathiser, as well as a bitch and a whore.”

At the time, Edinburgh University also denied that they were investigating Travers for ridiculing Isis, and instead for breaching the university’s Code of Student Conduct, for which he was later cleared.

The apology, which was posted earlier today, read:

“In a news story, ‘Law student who ridiculed Isis is accused of hate crime’ (Sep 5), we wrongly attributed to Esme Allman, a student at Edinburgh university, quotations from a complaint made to the university about another student, Robbie Travers.

“While Ms Allman had also submitted a complaint against Mr Travers, hers did not, as we stated, accuse him of mocking Isis or being Islamaphobic or, as we said in a further story (‘Edinburgh university backs student who mocked Isis’, Sep 11), of ‘disseminating hate speech and inciting others to violence’.

“We apologise for these errors, and for the distress and embarrassment caused to Ms Allman.”