Leaked conversations between members of the DKE-AS fraternity reveal confusion, chaos, panic, racism, lack of remorse, and trivialisation of the recent Meadows rape, as the members attempted to determine the sources of their leaks and control the fallout of The Student’s Tuesday article.
The Facebook conversations took place between original members listed in the minutes published on Tuesday and newer members who were not present at last year’s controversial meetings.
In one exchange on Sunday November 16, the day that a woman was raped on the Meadows in the early hours of the morning, fraternity members trivialised the rape in the following messages:
MEMBER 8: “To point out the obvious, someone has leaked the minutes which was a file created a little less than a year ago, if I recall correctly. Unless someone’s facebook page was left open, this is the only explanation and The Student are probably creaming themselves as just this morning there was a sexual assault in The Meadows, which was on police lockdown. I recommend we keep ourselves on the dlow [sic] until the article comes out. Do we know when that will be?”
MEMBER 2: “Can you account for your whereabouts for the entirety of this morning?”
MEMBER 10: “Yes”
MEMBER 2: “Was it The Meadows?”
MEMBER 10: “No, I got picked up by my dad and left for home at 11am”
MEMBER 8: “Next suspect library cat”
MEMBER 2: “Does he drive this?” [posts a picture of a red van with “Free Candy” painted on the side]
Another exchange was the site of yet more trivialisation of the Meadows rape, with members reacting to The Student’s initial article with shock and then debating where they should host their next meeting.
The exchange reads:
MEMBER 4: [posts link to The Student’s article]
MEMBER 3: “Wow they went full on hey”
MEMBER 5: “well in a nutshell we are fucked”
MEMBER 2: “Appearing on my newsfeed:” [posts screenshots of people sharing The Student’s article]
MEMBER 5: “[Member 9 and Member 11] – you are friends with the author… does she know about your secret lives?”
MEMBER 2: “Quite a lot to be discussed at this meeting that I have picked up from the article”
MEMBER 6: “Suggest we don’t meet in Lorimer”
MEMBER 7: “Or use “Mandarin Study Group””
MEMBER 5: “Suggestions?”
MEMBER 7: “My flat”
MEMBER 5: “Too far – can you book somewhere in Appleton?”
MEMBER 4: “That’s needlessly cautious”
MEMBER 5: “The Lorimer Room will be absolutely fine. Noone [sic] knows where we’re meeting.”
MEMBER 3: “Agreed”
MEMBER 2: “I suggest from now on we use the name “Gender and Justice study group””
MEMBER 6: “No I disagree. I think that’s reckless. For today at least we will meet elsewhere.”
MEMBER 2: “Like the Meadows?”
MEMBER 3: “Noone [sic] knows we are meeting? What danger are we in?”
MEMBER 4: “None”
MEMBER 3: “Agreed”
Later in the same exchange, members continued to debate over where they should meet, and discussed revelations of their plans for the “Phone a Deke” programme.
The conversation reads:
MEMBER 4: “They don’t even know which day we meet on”
MEMBER 2: “I will try to book something for this evening”
MEMBER 8: “[Member 4] oh yeah sure they know all this shit but they don’t know what day we meet on how do they know we meet in Lorimer? Come on”
MEMBER 1: “[Member 4] THEY KNOW ABOUT PHONE A DKE. This was posted here a month and a half ago.”
MEMBER 5: “[Member 3 and Member 4], Boys you know I love a good scrap – but maybe just once this week we move”
MEMBER 6: “Agree with [Member 8], at this point we can’t be too careful”
MEMBER 4: “[Member 1] you were talking about phone a [Member 1] all last year”
MEMBER 1: “No I wasn’t”
At the end of the same exchange, the members began to speculate over the identity of the anonymous sources of leaks to The Student, with Member 12 calling one of the suspects a “sneaky Mexican fuck”. Member 12 adds: “Guatemalan, same shit different packaging”.
The exchange reads:
MEMBER 1: “It’s [Suspect 1], he’s the only one still around for ‘Phone a DKE’ being posted. [Suspect 2] left a day or two before that.”
MEMBER 4: “IRC [Suspect 2] was still in this group for ages after he left. Anyway [Suspect 2] did not do this.”
MEMBER 6: “Everyone understood? [Member 4’s] flat this time. Save the debate for then.”
MEMBER 12: “Yeah absolutely [Suspect 1], and then [Suspect 2] came across as a genuine guy. Would really surprise me if he leaked info”
MEMBER 8: “Not sure it’s [Suspect 1]”
MEMBER 12: Who else would it be?
MEMBER 12: “([Suspect 3] and [Suspect 2] are pretty much of the list)”
MEMBER 3: “ok 7.30 at [Member 4’s]”
MEMBER 2: “[Suspect 1] is borderline illiterate and I am not sure he would even bother.”
MEMBER 8: “*”
MEMBER 8: “[Suspect 4]”
MEMBER 12: “But he’s a sneaky Mexican fuck”
MEMBER 12: “(Guatemalan, same shit different packaging)”
MEMBER 4: “[Suspect 1] is Mexican? I thought he was Filipino”
MEMBER 8: “Hes [sic] from panama [sic]”
MEMBER 4: “oh that’s awkward”
MEMBER 2: “[Suspect 4] seems more probable as he’s well acquainted with the filthy leftists”
Between these comments, members also discussed purchasing a clubhouse from which to base the fraternity’s operations, a night out, and the purchase of apparel which they said they regretted not being able to wear for Tuesday, the day The Student published its initial article.
The story has caused outrage among the University’s student body, and has been picked up by national and international outlets including TIME Magazine, The Daily Mail, the BBC, The Independent, The Telegraph, The Mirror, Gawker, The Huffington Post, Cosmopolitan, STV, ITV, The Times, The Herald Scotland, The Scotsman, and the Edinburgh Evening News. The Scottish Daily Record printed a story on the front cover, with the headline: “LET’S GO ON A RAPE HOLIDAY”.